Milbank/Davis Polk/Cravath Scale: NYC to 215-415k Forum

[Anonymous User]

Irell & Luner went to 225k starting

Weren't they always above market? Or does this mean something?

It's irrelevant. They also pay bonuses up to like 700k if you read the article. They're a niche firm. Tho congrats to their attorneys for getting $$$

[ExpOriental]

Irell & Luner went to 225k starting

Weren't they always above market? Or does this mean something?

Means nothing, both were already above market. And assuming that's a reference to Dovel & Luner (never seen them referred to as "Luner"), it's a like 10 lawyer firm, so even less relevant to biglaw than a more typical lit boutique like Irell

[Anonymous User]

Davis Polk has https://www.davispolk.com/lawyer/search ... =Associate 600 associates. Could one of you please pipe up and give us some insight about what's going on there? There has to be some scuttlebutt and rumormongering lol

[Anonymous User]

Davis Polk has https://www.davispolk.com/lawyer/search ... =Associate 600 associates. Could one of you please pipe up and give us some insight about what's going on there? There has to be some scuttlebutt and rumormongering lol

I choose to believe that all DPW associates got bumped to a Milbank+$10k scale and were promised WLRK-level spring bonuses as of earlier this week. And they all signed NDAs forbidding them from posting on here about it.

[Anonymous User]

Davis Polk has https://www.davispolk.com/lawyer/search ... =Associate 600 associates. Could one of you please pipe up and give us some insight about what's going on there? There has to be some scuttlebutt and rumormongering lol

I choose to believe that all DPW associates got bumped to a Milbank+$10k scale and were promised WLRK-level spring bonuses as of earlier this week. And they all signed NDAs forbidding them from posting on here about it.

Typical humble V10 firm behavior - being generous with associates and not wanting to get any press for it either!

[Chrstgtr]

Is anyone at DPW? Did you get paid today? Was it on the old scale or the get to be announced new scale?

[Anonymous User]

Davis Polk has https://www.davispolk.com/lawyer/search ... =Associate 600 associates. Could one of you please pipe up and give us some insight about what's going on there? There has to be some scuttlebutt and rumormongering lol

I choose to believe that all DPW associates got bumped to a Milbank+$10k scale and were promised WLRK-level spring bonuses as of earlier this week. And they all signed NDAs forbidding them from posting on here about it.

Typical humble V10 firm behavior - being generous with associates and not wanting to get any press for it either!

Someone said above that DPW pays on the 30th, so they will probably announce Monday after those checks have cleared. Given the delay, seems unlikely they will not have something extra-probably just deciding to announce the planned Spring bonuses early.

[lawshark1]

Irell & Luner went to 225k starting

Weren't they always above market? Or does this mean something?

Means nothing, both were already above market. And assuming that's a reference to Dovel & Luner (never seen them referred to as "Luner"), it's a like 10 lawyer firm, so even less relevant to biglaw than a more typical lit boutique like Irell

Why are y'all so negative?

[Anonymous User]

STB got paid today on the old scale.

[Anonymous User]

IMO, Davis Polk is deliberately slow rolling as a way of flexing on us all.

The dominance move is, “you little babies can’t do anything until we tell you to” and prolonging this limbo just highlights their alpha control over the situation vs. Cravath et al.’s weakness.

Am I just anonymously baiting Cravath into proving me wrong on a random forum? Maybe.

Pretty sure Cravath has accepted that its days as market leader are over, at least for the foreseeable future. Not sure why that happened, since they still have that old-school preftige to hold onto and end up matching DPW/Milbank like every other firm anyway so it doesn't cost them anything to be first mover. But after getting dunked on after trying to establish market bonuses last year, I wouldn't be eager to do anything before DPW if I were Cravath.

Well Cravath is almost out of the Top 10 in terms of RPL, and Milbank is right on their heels at #12. (https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2021 ... er-lawyer/)

Also, I don't think they had a year on part with DPW/Milbank/K&E etc.

Yeah, Cravath's glory days are over. As the preftigious V1, they were on par with half a dozen other firms last year in terms of PPP (Quinn, Cahill, Debevoise, Milbank, etc.) and a tangible step below their supposed peer firms (DPW/S&C/STB/PW). They probably don't want to recapture their reputation as the compensation leader since their partners won't even be spearheading future raises. Why waste the time and effort signaling this time if you'll never even have the coffers to willingly up the ante again in 2023 or 2025? Honestly wouldn't be surprised if Debevoise and Milbank report higher PPP than Cravath in a few months. Cravath's M&A enjoyed a sizable bump in volume in FY 2021, but otherwise, its late foray into capital markets and PE has really put it at a disadvantage in recent years and hasn't allowed it to generate the insane growth that other firms have been experiencing.

[Anonymous User]

DPW paid at old scale today. Associate rumor mill is in full swing but nothing concrete as of now.

[Anonymous User]

DPW paid at old scale today. Associate rumor mill is in full swing but nothing concrete as of now.

What are the rumors?

[Anonymous User]

DPW paid at old scale today. Associate rumor mill is in full swing but nothing concrete as of now.

What are the rumors?

Daddy Barr is coming over the top and matching Wachtell

[Anonymous User]

DPW paid at old scale today. Associate rumor mill is in full swing but nothing concrete as of now.

What are the rumors?

Yeah we got paid today, old scale. Rumors about a possible spring bonus being under discussion but who knows.

[Anonymous User]

Gonna be interesting if the big firms (who eventually will match) will make it retroactive. I'm sure a bunch of firms paid Friday and some more, including mine, pay on Monday. It would be nice for my first February check to include a retroactive raise for all of January, too.

[Anonymous User]

Just received my compensation award letter for the 2022-2023 year (fiscal year is Feb 1-January 31) and Foley & Lardner remains on the old (shitty) salary scale; of which class of 2018 and later is $25k below market in all markets.

Do you think Foley is going to match? Or ever move to lockstep through all class years?

Do their markets support the kind of rates that would make this possible?

Internally they are projecting to associates that we are top national firm and will pay market. Fact is they probably will match - but it will be delayed, like always (the 2021 matches won't go into effect until Feb 1; so the 2022 matches probably will hit paychecks in 2023). Also, compression will be there; they'll match for years 1-3 and then compress afterwards. They already don't pay market bonuses - I billed well over 2500 hours last year and they paid me half of what a Kirkland bonus would be.

So, they'll match - and they have brought all offices to the national scale (Tampa, SLC, Milwaukee, etc.) but it compress on the backend.

[splitmuch]

“Match but it compresses on the back end” is an oxymoron.

[Anonymous User]

Gonna be interesting if the big firms (who eventually will match) will make it retroactive. I'm sure a bunch of firms paid Friday and some more, including mine, pay on Monday. It would be nice for my first February check to include a retroactive raise for all of January, too.

Goodwin is doing this purportedly. Salary memo that went out announcing the scale increase noted that we'd be trued up in February for being paid on the old scale in January (presumably since they'd already baked the paychecks and couldn't change them).

[becodalapa]

Gonna be interesting if the big firms (who eventually will match) will make it retroactive. I'm sure a bunch of firms paid Friday and some more, including mine, pay on Monday. It would be nice for my first February check to include a retroactive raise for all of January, too.

Goodwin is doing this purportedly. Salary memo that went out announcing the scale increase noted that we'd be trued up in February for being paid on the old scale in January (presumably since they'd already baked the paychecks and couldn't change them).

Why purportedly? If the memo said it, is there some reason to doubt it?

[Anonymous User]

Gonna be interesting if the big firms (who eventually will match) will make it retroactive. I'm sure a bunch of firms paid Friday and some more, including mine, pay on Monday. It would be nice for my first February check to include a retroactive raise for all of January, too.

I don't think it's going to be "interesting." Not truing up for January is not a "match," it's a cheap lip service to matching. We shouldn't accept anything that doesn't true up for January a match.

But rest assured, all but the cheapest of the cheap will true us up. I'm at one of the few firms that has matched. They matched to late for it to show up on my January paycheck, but they assured everyone we would get back pay in February. When DPW comes around and smashes the scale again, I fully expect my firm to make me whole for whatever DPW does.

[Anonymous User]

So is today the day?

[Anonymous User]

So is today the day?

Yes. Sorry I meant to do it Friday but I was rolling around in my piles of money and then I drove my Ferrari off a cliff accidentally. Hard weekend replacing it. I'll get on this this morning. This is Neil Barr, btw

[Anonymous User]

So is today the day?

Yes. Sorry I meant to do it Friday but I was rolling around in my piles of money and then I drove my Ferrari off a cliff accidentally. Hard weekend replacing it. I'll get on this this morning. This is Neil Barr, btw

Sorry to hear that Neil but appreciate the update.

[Anonymous User]

Where’s my money DPW?

[Anonymous User]

DPW would never do this because there's really no incentive... but how much higher would they have to raise salaries for the lock-step system to start falling apart, do you think?