Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus Forum

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Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Feb 11, 2021 3:54 pm

There have been a few threads on this topic over the years, but the topic remains pretty opaque and older info may be out of date at this point.

What is the salary range of the big four Nashville local firms (so, Bass, Waller, Baker and Bradley)? What is the salary range of the new K&L Gates office (is it the same as the other offices)? Any other insight--e.g., Butler Snow, Frost Brown, etc.?

Also, what is the range for bonuses at each place?

TIA

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:22 pm

Anon because I don’t want people knowing I was applying to lateral recently.

It’s pretty low.

I had an offer to start as a fourth year at one of the big 4. It was mid-$160s. The recruiter said raises are probably $7-10k a year after that.

Bonuses are low as well. I think at BBS it’s a % of your salary based on hours. And I think it maxes out at 20%.

K&L Gates is probably going to pay the same as the big 4.

Edit: Nashville isn’t cheap, so even with no state income tax, mid-$160ks as a midlevel isn’t great.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by pumpmeup » Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:56 pm

I know it's Memphis, but I can't help thinking of The Firm. If they offer you a car and a house, run away!

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Feb 12, 2021 1:31 am

Agree with above post, can confirm the pay is...... not very good relative to cost of living. Most cities with similar salary ranges for biglaw are significantly cheaper to rent/buy a home in, and restaurants cost twice here than they did in my similarly sized previous market.

You have to really want to be in Nashville for it to make sense, because the money is not a draw.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:22 am

Posting anon as it wouldn't be too hard to tell who I am.

Had an offer from one of the big firms in Nashville (rhythms with baller).
The offer was lower than I had expected- 120 range. This was for a first year though.
A good friend worked at Bass. I think she was a 4th or 5th year or something when she left and was making around 160s.
I've heard Butler doesn't do pay increases the same as some of the others.
Baker I've heard good things about, and assume it pays comparable to the others.
Pay increases for these firms can be somewhat of a blackbox, so hard to gauge (which I know doesn't help you much).
However, while the salaries for Nashville used to be great, in the last 10 years or so prices have really started taking off. It used to be quite comparable to other mid sized southeastern cities- it is quite expensive now (especially if you're looking in like Franklin or Brentwood to live). You'll get more bang for your buck in a place like Charlotte or Memphis or even Phoenix. There are great things there though and Nashville is a cool place.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 13, 2021 12:36 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:22 am
Posting anon as it wouldn't be too hard to tell who I am.

Had an offer from one of the big firms in Nashville (rhythms with baller).
The offer was lower than I had expected- 120 range. This was for a first year though.
A good friend worked at Bass. I think she was a 4th or 5th year or something when she left and was making around 160s.
I've heard Butler doesn't do pay increases the same as some of the others.
Baker I've heard good things about, and assume it pays comparable to the others.
Pay increases for these firms can be somewhat of a blackbox, so hard to gauge (which I know doesn't help you much).
However, while the salaries for Nashville used to be great, in the last 10 years or so prices have really started taking off. It used to be quite comparable to other mid sized southeastern cities- it is quite expensive now (especially if you're looking in like Franklin or Brentwood to live). You'll get more bang for your buck in a place like Charlotte or Memphis or even Phoenix. There are great things there though and Nashville is a cool place.
I would note that starting pay is now 140k across the Big 4, but still small raises and bonuses that don't keep up with the cost of living increases Nashville has seen.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:00 am

I’m the anon who had the offer recently. I wouldn’t expect a bonus over $40k at any of the Big 4 (Bass, Waller, Baker D, or Bradley). It’s possible that K&L Gates will pay more, but given that K&L is below market in many of its other markets, I highly doubt it.

As others have posted, only go to nashville if you actually want to live there. Commute from Franklin/Brentwood is atrocious now, and post-tornado, Germantown isn’t as nice. And post-bombing, downtown isn’t as nice. No public transportation aside from a lousy bus system (voters vetoed a public transit system).

Nashville needs to pay the same as Atlanta/Charlotte ($165k starting) for it to make sense from a money perspective. But Nashville can’t pay that because rates are a lot lower than those other cities.

Obviously if you’re from Nashville or you’re dead set on moving there, you should go to one of the big 4 or K&L Gates for the best bang for your buck.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 13, 2021 7:36 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:00 am
Nashville needs to pay the same as Atlanta/Charlotte ($165k starting) for it to make sense from a money perspective. But Nashville can’t pay that because rates are a lot lower than those other cities.
I think you're giving Nashville firm leadership too much credit. But what I think doesn't matter if Nashville firms can get away with what they pay and enough (well-credentialed, experienced or whatever) people still flock to the market, whether from Nashville or not.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Feb 14, 2021 11:16 pm

Can't say much about other things, but K&L doesn't pay equally across all offices. Since Nashville pays below market, I think it's unlikely that K&L Nashville will pay $190k. Just my $0.02

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 14, 2021 12:28 pm

FYI - Waller upped its pay last week. I didn't see it mentioned in the forum. I think first years start at 155 now and that senior associates saw a nice bump as well. I also think they raised their bonus eligibly threshold to 1900 hours.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:48 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 14, 2021 12:28 pm
FYI - Waller upped its pay last week. I didn't see it mentioned in the forum. I think first years start at 155 now and that senior associates saw a nice bump as well. I also think they raised their bonus eligibly threshold to 1900 hours.
I interviewed before the raises and am still somewhat interested in the market. Do you know what the salary goes to for midlevel associates? I was offered mid-$160s for a Midlevel position. Is it now mid-$180s now?

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 15, 2021 4:24 pm

Earlier Anon, I heard the Waller midlevels got a sizable bump so my guess would be close to $180 for midlevels but this info is second hand but I can confirm the $155 starting line but everything else seemed a bit black box.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 15, 2021 6:37 pm

Nashville (and Tennessee generally) is one of the spots that Goodwin is allowing folks to WFH on a permanent basis even post-pandemic and will be paid on the Cravath scale. Will need to be barred in both Tennessee and the state of the Goodwin office you're "based" in eventually but happy to chat with anyone who's interested.

With a number of other firms also moving their back office operations to Nashville, curious whether this is an arrangement that other firms will mirror, particularly with the upward COL folks are noting upthread.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 15, 2021 8:44 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 6:37 pm
Nashville (and Tennessee generally) is one of the spots that Goodwin is allowing folks to WFH on a permanent basis even post-pandemic and will be paid on the Cravath scale. Will need to be barred in both Tennessee and the state of the Goodwin office you're "based" in eventually but happy to chat with anyone who's interested.

With a number of other firms also moving their back office operations to Nashville, curious whether this is an arrangement that other firms will mirror, particularly with the upward COL folks are noting upthread.
One of the people interested in Nashville above.

I think the only firms that have moved into Nashville are minor players. I think the biggest firm are Pillsbury and K&L. I think it’s too hard for a larger firm to justify moving into Nashville, even for back office services.

I have friends who work in Nashville, and their rates are less than half of market paying firms. Partner rates in Nashville are probably the equivalent of a first year at a V20. And that’s at one of the big 4. So no firms paying Cravath will probably move into Nashville, especially now with commercial real estate at a premium.

As to your other point, I spoke to people at Goodwin about the whole WFH thing and one friend said that he’d think twice before taking one of the WFH positions. He said he’s concerned about the whole needing to be barred in a city in which Goodwin has an office. He admitted that it’s probably for tax purposes, but he also said he wouldn’t be surprised if the firm eventually gives an ultimatum of working at that office or getting paid less / leaving. No evidence of it, but just something he thinks the firm would do.

I think someone mentioned in another thread that their firm offers something similar but wouldn’t pay Cravath in those cities (would just match whatever market is in that city).

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:15 pm

What states is Goodwin allowing permanent work from home in?

Another risk of that is that if you don't make partner, which you won't at Goodwin (especially 100% WFH), you may not have the local connections that can help when lateraling. 190 vs. 140 is a big difference though.

I'm generally mildly skeptical of biglaw firms entering secondary markets that can't support biglaw rates. If you can't support biglaw rates you can't throw around the piles of money that led to the success of national firms in Texas. Atlanta and North Carolina are still dominated by native firms for example even well after biglaw firms entered.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:53 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:15 pm
What states is Goodwin allowing permanent work from home in?

Another risk of that is that if you don't make partner, which you won't at Goodwin (especially 100% WFH), you may not have the local connections that can help when lateraling. 190 vs. 140 is a big difference though.

I'm generally mildly skeptical of biglaw firms entering secondary markets that can't support biglaw rates. If you can't support biglaw rates you can't throw around the piles of money that led to the success of national firms in Texas. Atlanta and North Carolina are still dominated by native firms for example even well after biglaw firms entered.
I think it’s Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston), North Carolina (Raleigh and Charlotte), Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Richmond, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago (based on what I saw posted on LinkedIn). If you have any friends at Goodwin, they can probably give you whatever the list is.

So, like all major and secondary markets.

It’s tempting to reach out about Nashville, but part of the draw of Nashville was the industry there (healthcare). Also, while I like WFH, I’d much prefer an office in a city like Nashville.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 16, 2021 2:08 am

Big Four in Nashville starts at 140/150 and top out at low-to-mid 200s; you can figure out the progression in between. Typical bonuses are 10-25 (hour requirements are 1850/1900). Income partners start around 250. Big drop off in salaries for everyone else (I think 120ish for Butler Snow/Sherrard/Frost/etc.). The thing I will say about Nashville is that it is a quickly adjusting market. Ten years ago, salaries started at $110K. So for that number to increase to 140/150 in such a short time shows pretty good adjustments in the market.
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:00 am
Nashville needs to pay the same as Atlanta/Charlotte ($165k starting) for it to make sense from a money perspective. But Nashville can’t pay that because rates are a lot lower than those other cities.
Even though it is more expensive to live in Nashville, the market salary will not ever catch up to Atlanta (or probably even Charlotte) until enough V100 firms move here to change the market, which they are not apt to do because the rate challenges are real. Keep in mind no state income tax in TN, so you're saving 5-6% vs. GA or NC.
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:15 pm
I'm generally mildly skeptical of biglaw firms entering secondary markets that can't support biglaw rates. If you can't support biglaw rates you can't throw around the piles of money that led to the success of national firms in Texas. Atlanta and North Carolina are still dominated by native firms for example even well after biglaw firms entered.
This is absolutely correct. For those wondering, I believe K&L was coming in around 160. I doubt the office will have any longevity. K&L did get a couple of big health care names in town but that's about it -- nothing particularly special about the rest. Given K&L's size and structure and the rate differential mentioned above, I cannot imagine there is much sustainability there, especially since K&L did not get name brand litigators.
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:00 am
As others have posted, only go to nashville if you actually want to live there. Commute from Franklin/Brentwood is atrocious now, and post-tornado, Germantown isn’t as nice. And post-bombing, downtown isn’t as nice. No public transportation aside from a lousy bus system (voters vetoed a public transit system).
This is a bad take. Commutes from Williamson County are not great, but if you are moving here from Texas, California, DC, Atlanta, etc., you will laugh at this take because the "traffic" here is nothing compared to a legitimate large city. Saying Germantown isn't as nice post-tornado is maybe the dumbest thing I've read and has no truth (also saying downtown not as nice after bombing is wildly inaccurate, unless you're a tourist spending all your time hanging out on 2nd Ave.)

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:11 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:53 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:15 pm
What states is Goodwin allowing permanent work from home in?

Another risk of that is that if you don't make partner, which you won't at Goodwin (especially 100% WFH), you may not have the local connections that can help when lateraling. 190 vs. 140 is a big difference though.

I'm generally mildly skeptical of biglaw firms entering secondary markets that can't support biglaw rates. If you can't support biglaw rates you can't throw around the piles of money that led to the success of national firms in Texas. Atlanta and North Carolina are still dominated by native firms for example even well after biglaw firms entered.
I think it’s Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston), North Carolina (Raleigh and Charlotte), Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Richmond, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago (based on what I saw posted on LinkedIn). If you have any friends at Goodwin, they can probably give you whatever the list is.

So, like all major and secondary markets.

It’s tempting to reach out about Nashville, but part of the draw of Nashville was the industry there (healthcare). Also, while I like WFH, I’d much prefer an office in a city like Nashville.
Goodwin transactional senior associate here. I don't know much about the Nashville market but I would be very hesitant to take the permanent WFH arrangement here. They are brand new and its unclear how seriously the firm will treat these remote associates as "real" associates for promotion and retention purposes. More importantly management here just fired dozens of associates last spring. Search Goodwin on these boards for a bunch of leads. These remote roles are to backfill the 50-100 associates per these boards that were laid off in the first month of the pandemic. So management fired a ton of associates then quickly realized their mistake when the markets came back. Not sure if they are having trouble finding local talent in NY/Boston/SF but I would tread very carefully. Having been here several years I can say that the turnover is unreal.

For those curious the full list per management is Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville, Raleigh, Richmond, San Diego and Seattle. I get that paying NY market is tempting but please also consider the history with the firm in discarding associates in your decision. Also the firm routinely screws over laterals in terms of comp and bonus due to our "merit" based compensation system. This arrangement strikes me as some desperation from a firm I would avoid knowing what I do now.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:38 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:11 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:53 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:15 pm
What states is Goodwin allowing permanent work from home in?

Another risk of that is that if you don't make partner, which you won't at Goodwin (especially 100% WFH), you may not have the local connections that can help when lateraling. 190 vs. 140 is a big difference though.

I'm generally mildly skeptical of biglaw firms entering secondary markets that can't support biglaw rates. If you can't support biglaw rates you can't throw around the piles of money that led to the success of national firms in Texas. Atlanta and North Carolina are still dominated by native firms for example even well after biglaw firms entered.
I think it’s Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston), North Carolina (Raleigh and Charlotte), Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Richmond, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago (based on what I saw posted on LinkedIn). If you have any friends at Goodwin, they can probably give you whatever the list is.

So, like all major and secondary markets.

It’s tempting to reach out about Nashville, but part of the draw of Nashville was the industry there (healthcare). Also, while I like WFH, I’d much prefer an office in a city like Nashville.
Goodwin transactional senior associate here. I don't know much about the Nashville market but I would be very hesitant to take the permanent WFH arrangement here. They are brand new and its unclear how seriously the firm will treat these remote associates as "real" associates for promotion and retention purposes. More importantly management here just fired dozens of associates last spring. Search Goodwin on these boards for a bunch of leads. These remote roles are to backfill the 50-100 associates per these boards that were laid off in the first month of the pandemic. So management fired a ton of associates then quickly realized their mistake when the markets came back. Not sure if they are having trouble finding local talent in NY/Boston/SF but I would tread very carefully. Having been here several years I can say that the turnover is unreal.

For those curious the full list per management is Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville, Raleigh, Richmond, San Diego and Seattle. I get that paying NY market is tempting but please also consider the history with the firm in discarding associates in your decision. Also the firm routinely screws over laterals in terms of comp and bonus due to our "merit" based compensation system. This arrangement strikes me as some desperation from a firm I would avoid knowing what I do now.
Thanks for this. I think this along the lines of what my friend at Goodwin was describing. Would you think it would make sense to wait a year to see how these associates fare before reaching out about a remote position from Nashville?

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 16, 2021 2:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 2:08 am
Big Four in Nashville starts at 140/150 and top out at low-to-mid 200s; you can figure out the progression in between...
This whole post is a really dishonest take from someone's recruitment department or a first year at a Big Four.

1. Waller starts at $155k now--largely to keep a certain group from imploding. In other news, water is wet. Even before K&L's entry, the rest of your range was not correct.
2. You couldn't figure out the progression in between for each firm at each class year. Nashville firms are notoriously sketchy about this. Moreso when you include quality of benefits and bonus amounts.
3. Nashville is not a quickly adjusting market--certainly not without multiple discussions/departures to make it that way. Wages have been historically low across all positions in all industries relative to COL. That's been true for years, but it's been particularly bad lately given huge COL increases due to everyone and their dog wanting to move to Nashville.
4. Even if you take into account no state income tax, pay is much lower in Nashville than GA or NC "market". It's not close and if you ran the numbers, you would know that.
5. K&L allows partners to scale rates based on market. Also, rate "challenges" in Nashville are wildly overblown by self-interested partners and--wouldn't you know it--don't matter at high enough associate hours!

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 16, 2021 2:41 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 2:26 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 2:08 am
Big Four in Nashville starts at 140/150 and top out at low-to-mid 200s; you can figure out the progression in between...
This whole post is a really dishonest take from someone's recruitment department or a first year at a Big Four.

1. Waller starts at $155k now--largely to keep a certain group from imploding. In other news, water is wet. Even before K&L's entry, the rest of your range was not correct.
2. You couldn't figure out the progression in between for each firm at each class year. Nashville firms are notoriously sketchy about this. Moreso when you include quality of benefits and bonus amounts.
3. Nashville is not a quickly adjusting market--certainly not without multiple discussions/departures to make it that way. Wages have been historically low across all positions in all industries relative to COL. That's been true for years, but it's been particularly bad lately given huge COL increases due to everyone and their dog wanting to move to Nashville.
4. Even if you take into account no state income tax, pay is much lower in Nashville than GA or NC "market". It's not close and if you ran the numbers, you would know that.
5. K&L allows partners to scale rates based on market. Also, rate "challenges" in Nashville are wildly overblown by self-interested partners and--wouldn't you know it--don't matter at high enough associate hours!
You seem to know a lot about the Nashville market. I mentioned above that my offer from one of the big-4 was in the 160s for a Midlevel (4th year). After the raise, I assumed it’d be around 180. The quoted OP said people in big 4 make up to mid-200s, which seems high but not outside of the realm of possibility.

Do you have a more accurate “scale” of some sort?

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:41 pm

Prior to Waller's raise (and the entry of K&L Gates) market salary in Nashville was primarily set by Bradley and Bass.

Waller historically matched the Bradley/Bass payscale for the first year or two but would be more black box after that with salary ranges for each year and an associate's particular salary tied to that individual's performance (but usually resulting in lower pay overall for mid-level and senior-level associates).

Baker has historically been slightly under the Bradley/Bass payscale, although I don't know if that remains the case.

I've not heard of any movement yet by Bradley or Bass to move their payscales based on the K&L entry or Waller's recent moves (although I expect there are a lot of associates at those two firms hoping the Waller raises force their hands).

Absent any new raises the approximate Bradley/Bass payscale (pure lock-step) is provided below:

1st - 140
2nd - 147*
3rd - 160*
4th - 170
5th - 180
6th - 190
7th - 200
8th - 215
9th - 215

* I forget the 2nd and 3rd year numbers, but essentially there is a smaller than average bump after 1st year which is then made up with a larger than average bump after your 2nd year.

Bonuses - Per Nalp, Bass's bonuses top out at 12% per year, and my understanding is that historically associates tended to get 8% for 1850 billable and 12% for 2000 billable, although it may be more subjective now with regard to whether you fall in the 8% or 12% bucket.

Waller has always claimed that it's bonuses make up for its black box comp. for higher-level associates. However, absent a few limited exceptions, it seems that Waller's bonuses tend to align somewhere close to Bass's/Bradley's numbers but with more variability generally and more subjective considerations.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 21, 2021 12:26 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:41 pm

Bonuses - Per Nalp, Bass's bonuses top out at 12% per year, and my understanding is that historically associates tended to get 8% for 1850 billable and 12% for 2000 billable, although it may be more subjective now with regard to whether you fall in the 8% or 12% bucket.
Do you know if the bonus is on a sliding scale or stepwise (i.e., firm 8% until you hit that 2000 hour mark)?

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:45 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:38 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:11 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:53 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:15 pm
What states is Goodwin allowing permanent work from home in?

Another risk of that is that if you don't make partner, which you won't at Goodwin (especially 100% WFH), you may not have the local connections that can help when lateraling. 190 vs. 140 is a big difference though.

I'm generally mildly skeptical of biglaw firms entering secondary markets that can't support biglaw rates. If you can't support biglaw rates you can't throw around the piles of money that led to the success of national firms in Texas. Atlanta and North Carolina are still dominated by native firms for example even well after biglaw firms entered.
I think it’s Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston), North Carolina (Raleigh and Charlotte), Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Richmond, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago (based on what I saw posted on LinkedIn). If you have any friends at Goodwin, they can probably give you whatever the list is.

So, like all major and secondary markets.

It’s tempting to reach out about Nashville, but part of the draw of Nashville was the industry there (healthcare). Also, while I like WFH, I’d much prefer an office in a city like Nashville.
Goodwin transactional senior associate here. I don't know much about the Nashville market but I would be very hesitant to take the permanent WFH arrangement here. They are brand new and its unclear how seriously the firm will treat these remote associates as "real" associates for promotion and retention purposes. More importantly management here just fired dozens of associates last spring. Search Goodwin on these boards for a bunch of leads. These remote roles are to backfill the 50-100 associates per these boards that were laid off in the first month of the pandemic. So management fired a ton of associates then quickly realized their mistake when the markets came back. Not sure if they are having trouble finding local talent in NY/Boston/SF but I would tread very carefully. Having been here several years I can say that the turnover is unreal.

For those curious the full list per management is Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville, Raleigh, Richmond, San Diego and Seattle. I get that paying NY market is tempting but please also consider the history with the firm in discarding associates in your decision. Also the firm routinely screws over laterals in terms of comp and bonus due to our "merit" based compensation system. This arrangement strikes me as some desperation from a firm I would avoid knowing what I do now.
Thanks for this. I think this along the lines of what my friend at Goodwin was describing. Would you think it would make sense to wait a year to see how these associates fare before reaching out about a remote position from Nashville?
That's what I would do in that position. I think it's too new to trust especially if it's at the expense of an offer at an established Nashville firm with a more clear career trajectory. I would wait to see if Goodwin actually promotes people that work fully remotely and if that constituency actually get full bonuses and class year raises. I would want a couple cycles of it before jumping into it because if the firm doesn't support these hires long term you could be getting yourself into a bad spot.

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Re: Nashville Salary Scale + Bonus

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:16 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 21, 2021 12:26 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:41 pm

Bonuses - Per Nalp, Bass's bonuses top out at 12% per year, and my understanding is that historically associates tended to get 8% for 1850 billable and 12% for 2000 billable, although it may be more subjective now with regard to whether you fall in the 8% or 12% bucket.
Do you know if the bonus is on a sliding scale or stepwise (i.e., firm 8% until you hit that 2000 hour mark)?
My understanding is that historically it was 8% for 1850-1999 and at 2,000 it jumped to 12%. Now, I believe the buckets remain the same but after qualifying for bonus with 1850, it's more subjective on who falls into the 8% and 12% buckets, based on annual reviews.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


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