NY to 200k?! Forum

[Anonymous User]

205 Crew:
Cravath, Skadden, S&C, Latham, Kirkland, STB, PW, Sidley, PH, Ropes, Cooley, O'Melveny, APKS, DLA, Morgan Lewis, Mayer Brown, Willkie, Clifford, A&O

202.5 Crew:
DPW, Gibson, Weil, Quinn, Cleary, W&C, Covington, Debevoise, Wilmer, MoFo, Hogan, Proskauer, Boies, Goodwin, Akin, BM, Orrick, WSGR, Munger, BB, Linklaters, FF, Shearman, Fenwick, HB

Still @ 200:
Milbank, W&S

Still @ 190:
K&S, K&L, Perkins, A&B, Kilpatrick(compressed?)

Off-market:
Wachtell, Williams, Jones Day (lol)

Google doc is now updated to include the stub year amounts for the V50. Thanks for this update, and if anyone sees anything wrong or learns anything new, I'll update as needed. Here's the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

DLA has a hard cut off @ 2,000 hours to get a bonus and used to cut class years by several classes for laterals (not sure if they still do). I don’t get the numerous arguments over stub years. Firms play plenty of games with comp that should warrant more discussion.

[NoLongerALurker]

I feel like a firm like Skadden paying 2.5k more (pro rated) to a stub, but still having an hours cut-off for bonus, means in total it should still be viewed as paying less than DPW. Dozens of first years every year lose like 15k because of workflow they can't control, but since they got an extra few hundred bucks during training Skadden gets to pretend it pays above DPW on lists like these? lawl.

Stubs don't have an hour threshold at Skadden. Every stub gets the bonus. Same for the first years and the special covid bonuses this year—there's no hour threshold.

Yes, thus my saying a stub gets a few extra hundred bucks during trainings and then dozens of first years miss their 15k bonus (which is an objective fact --- maybe not "dozens," but I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's at least a dozen every year).

[Anonymous User]

205 Crew:
Cravath, Skadden, S&C, Latham, Kirkland, STB, PW, Sidley, PH, Ropes, Cooley, O'Melveny, APKS, DLA, Morgan Lewis, Mayer Brown, Willkie, Clifford, A&O

202.5 Crew:
DPW, Gibson, Weil, Quinn, Cleary, W&C, Covington, Debevoise, Wilmer, MoFo, Hogan, Proskauer, Boies, Goodwin, Akin, BM, Orrick, WSGR, Munger, BB, Linklaters, FF, Shearman, Fenwick, HB

Still @ 200:
Milbank, W&S

Still @ 190:
K&S, K&L, Perkins, A&B, Kilpatrick(compressed?)

Off-market:
Wachtell, Williams, Jones Day (lol)

missing Gunderson

[ExpOriental]

205 Crew:
Cravath, Skadden, S&C, Latham, Kirkland, STB, PW, Sidley, PH, Ropes, Cooley, O'Melveny, APKS, DLA, Morgan Lewis, Mayer Brown, Willkie, Clifford, A&O

202.5 Crew:
DPW, Gibson, Weil, Quinn, Cleary, W&C, Covington, Debevoise, Wilmer, MoFo, Hogan, Proskauer, Boies, Goodwin, Akin, BM, Orrick, WSGR, Munger, BB, Linklaters, FF, Shearman, Fenwick, HB

Still @ 200:
Milbank, W&S

Still @ 190:
K&S, K&L, Perkins, A&B, Kilpatrick(compressed?)

Off-market:
Wachtell, Williams, Jones Day (lol)

missing Gunderson

And Mintz Levin, and Cadwalader, and McDermott, and several others, though I'm not going to go and check for them all. Also, initialism abuse. Very annoying.

Just go to the ATL tracker, which is fully accurate as far as I can tell.

[Anonymous User]

Thoughts on what is taking Milbank so long to match the new scale that beat them?

They're debating whether it's worth it to go 210.

FYI - I'm at an overseas satellite office of a V20 firm. If Milbank goes 210k for first years, their first year salary will be exactly equal to our fourth year salary here.

[Anonymous User]

Kirkland’s lateral hiring report (newly instituted to raise associate morale) shows they’ve hired more than 300 laterals in 2021 - nearly 80 in New York and more than 60 in Chicago. Literally bursting at the seams here and they can’t even go over the top of DPW’s scale. I’m sure they will once again talk a big game in December and then have a 1.2x bonus multiplier median.

I'd love them to go over the top as well. But as discussed like 30 pages back on this thread, Kirkland is fighting the war for laterals and partners, not incoming law school grads. There is no indication that they're hurting in standard law school recruiting by just matching what the market does, so they would rather spend their money poaching from other firms.

Kirkland will never, ever be a comp. leader like Milbank as far as starting a salary war, increasing base comp., announcing an unexpected bonus. If you expect this from them you don't get the leadership / share partner culture there. Associates (and non-share partners) are viewed as fungible grist for the mill; they don't promote to equity from those ranks (look at the recent bankruptcy defection) and they don't care. Morale here is terrible which is hilariously ironic considering the firm is rolling in money and the share partners are among the richest law partners in the history of the world now, and that's not an exaggerated statement. The way to become a share partner at Kirkland these days is to start at another firm and get poached.

[Anonymous User]

Duane Morris raised salaries and also apparently is giving bonuses of half a year's salary to their associates.

Source: know someone that uses them, partner told this to the person I know. Didn't say the exact numbers and they were at $180,000 before this so I don't know if they raised to $190,00 or $200/202.5/205

[Anonymous User]

Duane Morris raised salaries and also apparently is giving bonuses of half a year's salary to their associates.

Source: know someone that uses them, partner told this to the person I know. Didn't say the exact numbers and they were at $180,000 before this so I don't know if they raised to $190,00 or $200/202.5/205

NEW MARKET LEADER (other than Wachtell)!!

[Anonymous User]

Duane Morris raised salaries and also apparently is giving bonuses of half a year's salary to their associates.

Source: know someone that uses them, partner told this to the person I know. Didn't say the exact numbers and they were at $180,000 before this so I don't know if they raised to $190,00 or $200/202.5/205

NEW MARKET LEADER (other than Wachtell)!!

I'd rather make 150 than work at a firm named like every opioid night-night case in West Virginia.

[Anonymous User]

Duane Morris raised salaries and also apparently is giving bonuses of half a year's salary to their associates.

Source: know someone that uses them, partner told this to the person I know. Didn't say the exact numbers and they were at $180,000 before this so I don't know if they raised to $190,00 or $200/202.5/205

NEW MARKET LEADER (other than Wachtell)!!

I'd rather make 150 than work at a firm named like every opioid night-night case in West Virginia.

No. I do this for money and literally nothing else about this job is otherwise tolerable.

[Anonymous User]

Thoughts on what is taking Milbank so long to match the new scale that beat them?

They're debating whether it's worth it to go 210.

FYI - I'm at an overseas satellite office of a V20 firm. If Milbank goes 210k for first years, their first year salary will be exactly equal to our fourth year salary here.

I thought people working abroad all got sizeable COLA packages. There are overseas offices (for V20 at least) that don't give expat packages? I know associates in Hong Kong get like 50-100k more than NY base pay depending on the firm.

[NoLongerALurker]

Duane Morris raised salaries and also apparently is giving bonuses of half a year's salary to their associates.

Source: know someone that uses them, partner told this to the person I know. Didn't say the exact numbers and they were at $180,000 before this so I don't know if they raised to $190,00 or $200/202.5/205

NEW MARKET LEADER (other than Wachtell)!!

I'd rather make 150 than work at a firm named like every opioid night-night case in West Virginia.

No. I do this for money and literally nothing else about this job is otherwise tolerable.

Haha +1

[Anonymous User]

You’d be shocked! Just Sidley Austin, Cravath & a handful of firms pay COLA. A friend informed that Skadden has stopped paying COLA, even though it matches NY scale across all Satellite offices

Thoughts on what is taking Milbank so long to match the new scale that beat them?

They're debating whether it's worth it to go 210.

FYI - I'm at an overseas satellite office of a V20 firm. If Milbank goes 210k for first years, their first year salary will be exactly equal to our fourth year salary here.

I thought people working abroad all got sizeable COLA packages. There are overseas offices (for V20 at least) that don't give expat packages? I know associates in Hong Kong get like 50-100k more than NY base pay depending on the firm.

[Anonymous User]

You’d be shocked! Just Sidley Austin, Cravath & a handful of firms pay COLA. A friend informed that Skadden has stopped paying COLA, even though it matches NY scale across all Satellite offices

Thoughts on what is taking Milbank so long to match the new scale that beat them?

They're debating whether it's worth it to go 210.

FYI - I'm at an overseas satellite office of a V20 firm. If Milbank goes 210k for first years, their first year salary will be exactly equal to our fourth year salary here.

I thought people working abroad all got sizeable COLA packages. There are overseas offices (for V20 at least) that don't give expat packages? I know associates in Hong Kong get like 50-100k more than NY base pay depending on the firm.

Can confirm that last I checked (like a year ago) Skadden stopped paying COLA, but was grandfathering it out (so current associates on a COLA from back when they used to pay them are getting COLA).

[NYto202.5]

Does anyone know anything about raises (or special bonuses) at Greenberg Traurig? There was something on Above the Law about "rumors" of raises for the NY office. I'm mostly interested in whether they've given raises in other offices. Would also be curious to hear the details on their special bonus program. There have been comments on this forum about GT paying special bonuses, but no details.

[Anonymous User]

Thoughts on what is taking Milbank so long to match the new scale that beat them?

They're debating whether it's worth it to go 210.

FYI - I'm at an overseas satellite office of a V20 firm. If Milbank goes 210k for first years, their first year salary will be exactly equal to our fourth year salary here.

I thought people working abroad all got sizeable COLA packages. There are overseas offices (for V20 at least) that don't give expat packages? I know associates in Hong Kong get like 50-100k more than NY base pay depending on the firm.

I'm the anon that works at that V20 overseas office. I myself was very surprised as someone that came here fairly recently from NY biglaw. I'm in Asia, but not HK. Without the recent raise in NY, the salary difference was at least somewhat tolerable as the cost of living here is generally lower. But with this raise, it's so demoralizing. I'm going to have to jump ship if this doesn't get fixed.

[Anonymous User]

Thoughts on what is taking Milbank so long to match the new scale that beat them?

They're debating whether it's worth it to go 210.

FYI - I'm at an overseas satellite office of a V20 firm. If Milbank goes 210k for first years, their first year salary will be exactly equal to our fourth year salary here.

I thought people working abroad all got sizeable COLA packages. There are overseas offices (for V20 at least) that don't give expat packages? I know associates in Hong Kong get like 50-100k more than NY base pay depending on the firm.

I'm the anon that works at that V20 overseas office. I myself was very surprised as someone that came here fairly recently from NY biglaw. It's not HK. Without the recent raise in NY, the salary difference was at least somewhat tolerable as the cost of living here is generally lower. But with this raise, it's so demoralizing. I'm going to have to jump ship if this doesn't get fixed.

I am a NY qualified lawyer working at a US firm in London. I have not heard of any major firm not paying a COLA of at least $50k. Top of the market is $100k.

[Anonymous User]

Skadden doesn’t pay COLA

Thoughts on what is taking Milbank so long to match the new scale that beat them?

They're debating whether it's worth it to go 210.

FYI - I'm at an overseas satellite office of a V20 firm. If Milbank goes 210k for first years, their first year salary will be exactly equal to our fourth year salary here.

I thought people working abroad all got sizeable COLA packages. There are overseas offices (for V20 at least) that don't give expat packages? I know associates in Hong Kong get like 50-100k more than NY base pay depending on the firm.

I'm the anon that works at that V20 overseas office. I myself was very surprised as someone that came here fairly recently from NY biglaw. It's not HK. Without the recent raise in NY, the salary difference was at least somewhat tolerable as the cost of living here is generally lower. But with this raise, it's so demoralizing. I'm going to have to jump ship if this doesn't get fixed.

I am a NY qualified lawyer working at a US firm in London. I have not heard of any major firm not paying a COLA of at least $50k. Top of the market is $100k.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have the details on this Reed Smith "Do you want a raise?" survey?

[Anonymous User]

My AmLaw 50 firm has not matched raises yet or even mentioned it. Totally inexcusable at this point. How do they not think associates will leave?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have the details on this Reed Smith "Do you want a raise?" survey?

Other than it's pathetic? Nope.

[Anonymous User]

Cleary just bumped class of 2021 and summers' salary to $205k.

[Anonymous User]

Cleary just bumped class of 2021 and summers' salary to $205k.

Nice. Hopefully the 202.5 –> 205 moves get reported on ATL, so as to pressure my firm into doing so. I want that 1% higher paycheck.

[doctor]

My AmLaw 50 firm has not matched raises yet or even mentioned it. Totally inexcusable at this point. How do they not think associates will leave?

You are posting anonymously. You can namedrop the firm.

[doctor]

Cleary just bumped class of 2021 and summers' salary to $205k.

How did they make the announcement?