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

[Anonymous User]

And let’s not act like they are totally ignoring juniors. As a 3L, the starting salary was 190k when I got my offer to be a summer associate and I will be starting at 215k in September. Granted, factoring in inflation etc etc…but still.

[Anonymous User]

7th year at a V5 here. This raise is horrendously tone-deaf in the context of what is happening in the world and makes me want to wretch. Fuck money fuck these golden handcuffs fuck biglaw and fuck us at TLS perpetuating this joke.

yea, if the partners don't keep the money rather than giving it to us, Putin wins.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah as a first year this is getting weird lol. If we don't have a crash and I last 4-5 years, sure. Otherwise these are just numbers.

If you want to stick around and aren't completely terrible at your job (and yea, provided there isn't a gigantic crash) then you'll get the money. And even if you leave earlier, having the scale be higher gives you somewhat more leverage in salary negotiations for whatever you do after biglawl

[Anonymous User]

7th year at a V5 here. This raise is horrendously tone-deaf in the context of what is happening in the world and makes me want to wretch. Fuck money fuck these golden handcuffs fuck biglaw and fuck us at TLS perpetuating this joke.

lmao, why dont you quit then

the money today isn't better, inflation-adjusted, then 2007 and expectations have increased. Pay per hour down in real terms.

sidenote, I wonder how the socioeconomics of law firm associates today compares to ten or twenty years ago. Are people more or less likely to have daddy's money? If yes, its easier to bail after two or three years to "find yourself" because you never really needed the cash to begin with, which might explain retention struggle.

[Anonymous User]

Damn. Juniors getting no luv.

Recruiting incoming law students and getting them to stick for a couple years isn't the problem, firms are having trouble with years 4+ generally. It shouldn't be a surprise that raises are being funneled there

This is backwards reasoning tho. The reason there's a shortage of mids+ is because of years of under recruitment of juniors.

Not for the vast majority of firms. It’s because by the time you’re a fourth year you’re usually burnt out and asked to take on way more responsibility on your cases. That can make people want to say forget it and go in house.

That's not new. There's always attrition. Why is there suddenly more now? It's a pipeline issue. Start with too few juniors, you'll find yourself missing seniors 5-8 years later.

There isn't enough junior-level work to justify hiring more juniors. Even if firms adopted your "just hire more juniors, bro" strategy, that only solves their lack of midlevels four years from today, not today.

[Anonymous User]

7th year at a V5 here. This raise is horrendously tone-deaf in the context of what is happening in the world and makes me want to wretch. Fuck money fuck these golden handcuffs fuck biglaw and fuck us at TLS perpetuating this joke.

lmao, why dont you quit then

the money today isn't better, inflation-adjusted, then 2007 and expectations have increased. Pay per hour down in real terms.

sidenote, I wonder how the socioeconomics of law firm associates today compares to ten or twenty years ago. Are people more or less likely to have daddy's money? If yes, its easier to bail after two or three years to "find yourself" because you never really needed the cash to begin with, which might explain retention struggle.

People with daddy's money to the point that they don't have to work who do Biglaw (esp transactional) make the least sense to me. why on earth??

[Anonymous User]

sidenote, I wonder how the socioeconomics of law firm associates today compares to ten or twenty years ago. Are people more or less likely to have daddy's money? If yes, its easier to bail after two or three years to "find yourself" because you never really needed the cash to begin with, which might explain retention struggle.

I thought the 2-3 years biglaw is because of (1) how relatively "easy" junior years are, and (2) just long enough for law grads to pay off their loans or pay down to a manageable amount.

[Anonymous User]

I think it's hilarious that DPW burned so many people out by the wait that there aren't 1,000 posts now jumping up and down about Cravath despite them making a move that re-establishes them as a compensation leader.

[Ultramar vistas]

Think it’s probably more to do with the fact that (a) there are way fewer people in general impacted by these raises, because it’s effectively 5th years and up only (4th years get $1,500 so not worth a post) and (b) the people impacted are both less likely to still be reading and/or posting on TLS, because it’s been like a decade since they were going through law school admissions.

[Anonymous User]

7th year at a V5 here. This raise is horrendously tone-deaf in the context of what is happening in the world and makes me want to wretch. Fuck money fuck these golden handcuffs fuck biglaw and fuck us at TLS perpetuating this joke.

Are biglaw partners now astroturfing TLS?

[blair.waldorf]

7th year at a V5 here. This raise is horrendously tone-deaf in the context of what is happening in the world and makes me want to wretch. Fuck money fuck these golden handcuffs fuck biglaw and fuck us at TLS perpetuating this joke.

Lmao imagine complaining about making more money

[Anonymous User]

PW just matched Cravath.

[Anonymous User]

I think it's hilarious that DPW burned so many people out by the wait that there aren't 1,000 posts now jumping up and down about Cravath despite them making a move that re-establishes them as a compensation leader.

I'm an 8th year at a firm that will *probably* match, and I'm very happy.

[Anonymous User]

At a v50ish firm and a partner told me in passing they thought these raises were outrageous and can't believe we matched...I lol'd silently to myself.

[Anonymous User]

PW just matched Cravath.

PW must have an auto-match for Cravath/DPW since they've been first to match at least twice.

[Anonymous User]

Quinn Emanuel matched Cravath about an hour ago.

[Anonymous User]

PW just matched Cravath.

PW must have an auto-match for Cravath/DPW since they've been first to match at least twice.

The speed at which we match DPW is crazy, but good. It wasn't just this last round.

[Anonymous User]

At a v50ish firm and a partner told me in passing they thought these raises were outrageous and can't believe we matched...I lol'd silently to myself.

It's funny how most (not all) biglaw partners are committed free-market, laissez-faire types when it comes to markets generally or their own take home pay. The second that the forces of supply & demand affect the firm's cost structure (i.e., boost associate pay), they are suddenly appalled and all moralistic about it.

[Anonymous User]

I think it's hilarious that DPW burned so many people out by the wait that there aren't 1,000 posts now jumping up and down about Cravath despite them making a move that re-establishes them as a compensation leader.

Money talks. Cravath is a compensation leader for now.

On another note, I think DPW and then Cravath raises essentially signal that the legal market re clients is doing very well, despite the ongoing war and the stock market.

[Anonymous User]

Will the West Coast firms match? (i.e., Cooley, Finwich, Gunderson, WSGR)

[RaceJudicata]

Will the West Coast firms match? (i.e., Cooley, Finwich, Gunderson, WSGR)

Yes…

[Anonymous User]

Will the West Coast firms match? (i.e., Cooley, Finwich, Gunderson, WSGR)

Oh to be both so ignorant as to not see that CSM has set the market and so naïve as to think some random poster on TLS is authoritative enough to settle that question...

[Anonymous User]

PW just matched Cravath.

PW must have an auto-match for Cravath/DPW since they've been first to match at least twice.

The speed at which we match DPW is crazy, but good. It wasn't just this last round.

As a former PW associate, I was chatting with a person on the personnel team a couple years ago and I got a notification that Cravath released bonus info. I mentioned it to her and she literally ran to the nearest phone to call the Chair's office and within minutes the match email came out. It was pretty funny, but appreciated.

[Wanderingdrock]

PW just matched Cravath.

PW must have an auto-match for Cravath/DPW since they've been first to match at least twice.

The speed at which we match DPW is crazy, but good. It wasn't just this last round.

As a former PW associate, I was chatting with a person on the personnel team a couple years ago and I got a notification that Cravath released bonus info. I mentioned it to her and she literally ran to the nearest phone to call the Chair's office and within minutes the match email came out. It was pretty funny, but appreciated.

So what I'm hearing is, it's gonna be hilarious when DPW decides to troll PW by releasing a prank raise announcement (NY TO 600K!!!) and then watch PW match and proceed to try to figure out whether to walk it back.

[Anonymous User]

The weird thing about this cartel system is that if a firm can afford to match, and without having to even consider it much, why do they need to wait until other firms raise first? It's objectively strange.