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

[Anonymous User]

At this point I think the delay is a sign that DPW is trying to chill the salary war. Long live Milbank.

I agree. At this point, DPW is either genuinely deadlocked on the inside (incompetence) or is pursuing a deliberate strategy to cool things off (sadistic & self-sabotaging).

At what point do you think the floodgates have to open then and firms need to just start falling in line with the Milbank scale (under the assumption that DPW can't figure out what they're going to do and is rightfully arguing over which partner that has a "T" in their last name should be promoted to named partner so that we can add TTT somewhere in DPW's acronym).

Soon. This isn't going to last indefinitely. At some point the adults in the room at other firms are going to step in to announce matches or hell, maybe even re-raises / special bonuses. I know we joke but Cravath isn't going to stand for having its associates compensated at a lower scale than Wilmer or wherever. My thinking is DPW has until the end of this business week and if they don't move someone in the V10 comes out the following week and then the dominoes starting falling.

We've been assuming DPW wants to "flex" and show compensation leader status. Maybe what's actually going on is the partnership is crying uncle and regretting getting that reputation and this is their way of bowing out of that game. Next ~36 hours will be telling I think.

[Anonymous User]

At this point I think the delay is a sign that DPW is trying to chill the salary war. Long live Milbank.

I agree. At this point, DPW is either genuinely deadlocked on the inside (incompetence) or is pursuing a deliberate strategy to cool things off (sadistic & self-sabotaging).

At what point do you think the floodgates have to open then and firms need to just start falling in line with the Milbank scale (under the assumption that DPW can't figure out what they're going to do and is rightfully arguing over which partner that has a "T" in their last name should be promoted to named partner so that we can add TTT somewhere in DPW's acronym).

Soon. This isn't going to last indefinitely. At some point the adults in the room at other firms are going to step in to announce matches or hell, maybe even re-raises / special bonuses. I know we joke but Cravath isn't going to stand for having its associates compensated at a lower scale than Wilmer or wherever. My thinking is DPW has until the end of this business week and if they don't move someone in the V10 comes out the following week and then the dominoes starting falling.

We've been assuming DPW wants to "flex" and show compensation leader status. Maybe what's actually going on is the partnership is crying uncle and regretting getting that reputation and this is their way of bowing out of that game. Next ~36 hours will be telling I think.

Best way to bow out is to just match.

[FLBAR0718]

Not sure if anyone else saw this, but the actual market leader is Loeb & Loeb if you're a high biller. The bonus for 2400 hours for an eighth year was $305k.

[Anonymous User]

At this point I think the delay is a sign that DPW is trying to chill the salary war. Long live Milbank.

I agree. At this point, DPW is either genuinely deadlocked on the inside (incompetence) or is pursuing a deliberate strategy to cool things off (sadistic & self-sabotaging).

At what point do you think the floodgates have to open then and firms need to just start falling in line with the Milbank scale (under the assumption that DPW can't figure out what they're going to do and is rightfully arguing over which partner that has a "T" in their last name should be promoted to named partner so that we can add TTT somewhere in DPW's acronym).

Soon. This isn't going to last indefinitely. At some point the adults in the room at other firms are going to step in to announce matches or hell, maybe even re-raises / special bonuses. I know we joke but Cravath isn't going to stand for having its associates compensated at a lower scale than Wilmer or wherever. My thinking is DPW has until the end of this business week and if they don't move someone in the V10 comes out the following week and then the dominoes starting falling.

We've been assuming DPW wants to "flex" and show compensation leader status. Maybe what's actually going on is the partnership is crying uncle and regretting getting that reputation and this is their way of bowing out of that game. Next ~36 hours will be telling I think.

Best way to bow out is to just match.

That may be what ends up happening; but they've walked themselves into a corner with this 3-week delay so if they do that it'll be obvious the match was a product of some big behind the scenes dispute.

[Anonymous User]

Not sure if anyone else saw this, but the actual market leader is Loeb & Loeb if you're a high biller. The bonus for 2400 hours for an eighth year was $305k.

Found Ken Florin's account.

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

Yo….. are you serious or are you trollin’

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

Yo….. are you serious or are you trollin’

I choose to trust them and then get irrationally angry when it turns out they're wrong.

[Anonymous User]

I would have to imagine firms that know they're going to have to match and then true up to January 1 would like to be done with this before they're 2 months behind on payroll so again I would have to imagine we see some announcements start trickling in tomorrow (even if they're not from DPW) in advance of payroll next Tuesday.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that this thread is 40 pages long shows how neurotic lawyers are lol. My god, we are talking not that much money at the end of the day after tax.

Be that as it may, I'm a hypocrite because I would totally lateral if my firm didn't match.

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

Yo….. are you serious or are you trollin’

I choose to trust them and then get irrationally angry when it turns out they're wrong.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that this thread is 40 pages long shows how neurotic lawyers are lol. My god, we are talking not that much money at the end of the day after tax.

Be that as it may, I'm a hypocrite because I would totally lateral if my firm didn't match.

We sure as shit are talking about a lot of money if DPW kicks off a round of special bonuses tho, so there's that ....

[woopig2017]

The fact that this thread is 40 pages long shows how neurotic lawyers are lol. My god, we are talking not that much money at the end of the day after tax.

Be that as it may, I'm a hypocrite because I would totally lateral if my firm didn't match.

Every time that I see the page count on this thread jump I think that someone has finally matched and there is real news, but so far it has always just been a flame war between morons fighting over preftige.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that this thread is 40 pages long shows how neurotic lawyers are lol. My god, we are talking not that much money at the end of the day after tax.

Be that as it may, I'm a hypocrite because I would totally lateral if my firm didn't match.

Every time that I see the page count on this thread jump I think that someone has finally matched and there is real news, but so far it has always just been a flame war between morons fighting over preftige.

It's the other way round, as soon as there's news everyone will go back to work

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

So uh. 12 minutes till show time. I'm ready.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that this thread is 40 pages long shows how neurotic lawyers are lol. My god, we are talking not that much money at the end of the day after tax.

Be that as it may, I'm a hypocrite because I would totally lateral if my firm didn't match.

Actually as a first year I do see it as a lot of money - not because of the measly $5k or whatever they’ll give me now, but because of the additional increases I’ll receive over the course of my BigLaw career (due to increases further up the scale). The raise could easily aggregate to half my student loans over the next 5 years.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that this thread is 40 pages long shows how neurotic lawyers are lol. My god, we are talking not that much money at the end of the day after tax.

Be that as it may, I'm a hypocrite because I would totally lateral if my firm didn't match.

Actually as a first year I do see it as a lot of money - not because of the measly $5k or whatever they’ll give me now, but because of the additional increases I’ll receive over the course of my BigLaw career (due to increases further up the scale). The raise could easily aggregate to half my student loans over the next 5 years.

The people calling it "not a lot of money" also seem to be forgetting (or simply don't understand) how much that $5k-10k after tax actually grows over the course of 25-30 years. If you just tuck it away as a pleasant surprise in your investment account and never spend it, you'll be even more pleasantly surprised by it in about 30 years.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that this thread is 40 pages long shows how neurotic lawyers are lol. My god, we are talking not that much money at the end of the day after tax.

Be that as it may, I'm a hypocrite because I would totally lateral if my firm didn't match.

Actually as a first year I do see it as a lot of money - not because of the measly $5k or whatever they’ll give me now, but because of the additional increases I’ll receive over the course of my BigLaw career (due to increases further up the scale). The raise could easily aggregate to half my student loans over the next 5 years.

The people calling it "not a lot of money" also seem to be forgetting (or simply don't understand) how much that $5k-10k after tax actually grows over the course of 25-30 years. If you just tuck it away as a pleasant surprise in your investment account and never spend it, you'll be even more pleasantly surprised by it in about 30 years.

This. This or more money for Starbucks…. Can’t decide. But partially this.

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

I am ready

[Anonymous User]

Woj is reporting that Barr was waiting to finalize the Harden trade and he will now turn his attention to the raises.

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

FALSE PROPHET

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

FALSE PROPHET

Is this the part where we rip some random firm to shreads?

[Anonymous User]

Actually it's 3pm of never

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

FALSE PROPHET

Is this the part where we rip some random firm to shreads?

I nominate Troutman.

[Anonymous User]

2:00 - 2:30 est today, be ready.

FALSE PROPHET

Is this the part where we rip some random firm to shreads?

I nominate Troutman.

I did a random number generator, it gave me 60. Which is Holland & Knight.