Top Law Schools

Edit: Matches ranked by firms' vault ranks.

post 2/28 = Cravath Scale, unless otherwise noted

Cravath (v1) 2/28 -- Current Market Leader
Skadden (v3) 2/23, 3/2
Sullivan & Cromwell (v4) 3/17
Latham (v5) 3/1
Kirkland (v6) 2/23, 3/1 -- retroactive to 2/1 for 7th+ year
Davis Polk (v7) 2/22, 3/3 -- First Raiser
Simpson Thacher (v8) 2/23, 3/2
Paul, Weiss (v9) 2/22, 2/28
Gibson Dunn (v10) 2/27, 3/14
Sidley (v11) 2/24, 3/2
Weil (v12) 2/25, 3/7
Quinn (v13) 2/28
Cleary (v14) 2/23, 3/2
Covington (v15) 3/4
White & Case (v16) 3/4
Debevoise (v17) 2/23, 3/1 -- (sort of) Second Raiser
Ropes (v18) 2/23, 3/2
WilmerHale (v19) 1/24, 3/15
Paul Hastings (v20) 2/28, 3/3 -- retroactive to 1/31
Milbank (v23) 1/20, 3/14 -- First Mover
Cooley (v24) 2/7, 3/11
Morrison & Foerster (v25) 3/15
O’Melveny (v26) 2/23, 3/4
Hogan Lovells (v27) 3/11
Proskauer (v28) 2/23, 3/7
Goodwin (v29) 1/21, 3/7
Akin Gump (v30) 2/28, 3/11
Arnold & Porter (v31) 3/2, 3/15
Orrick (v32) 3/4
DLA Piper (v34) 1/25, 3/15
Morgan Lewis (v35) 2/4
Willkie Farr (v36) 2/23, 3/14
Baker McKenzie (v37) 1/24
Wilson Sonsini (v38) 2/18 -- retroactive to 2/1
King & Spalding (v39) 3/14
Mayer Brown (v40) 3/8
Winston & Strawn (v41) 1/26, 3/8 -- retroactive to 2/1
Boies (v43) 1/24, 3/4
Clifford Chance (v44) 2/25, 3/8
Fried Frank (v46) 1/21, 2/25, 3/8
Shearman & Sterling (v48) 3/4
Allen & Overy (v49) 2/28, 3/8
Dechert (v51) 2/23, 3/8
Linklaters (v52) 2/24, 3/7
McDermott (v54) 1/20, 2/22, 3/1
Cadwalader (v56) 1/20, 2/24, 3/9
Jenner & Block (v59) 2/28
Vinson & Elkins (v62) 2/24, 3/3
Freshfields (v63) 2/24, 3/7
Norton Rose Fulbright (v64) 2/4, 2/28, 3/15
Cahill (v65) 2/14, 3/4
Fenwick (v70) 2/18, 3/7
Sheppard Mullin 3/8
Irell (v73) 1/21
Steptoe (v75) 1/21
Schulte Roth & Zabel (v79) 2/24, 3/9
Katten Muchin (v82) 3/10
[/color]Mintz (v84) 3/15[/color]
Gunderson (v88) 2/16, 3/9
Kellogg Hansen (v90) 3/9 -- 255k-420k
Kramer Levin (v92) 3/8
Foley Hoag (v96) 3/3

Hueston Hennigan (NR) 1/20, 2/23, 3/1
McKool Smith (NR) 1/21
Dovel & Luner (NR) 1/27 -- 225k
Axinn Veltrop (NR) 2/1
Groom (NR) 2/9
Choate, Hall & Stewart (NR) 2/10
Brewer (NR) 2/15 -- 235k
Lynn Pinker (NR) 2/16
Desmarais (NR) 2/23, 3/11 -- plus spring bonus (7.5-20k)
Selendy Gay (NR) 2/24
Kaplan Hecker & Fink (NR) 3/3 -- 220k-425k and mid-year bonus of 5k-15k
Tensegrity 3/3 -- 220k-425k
Holwell Shuster & Goldberg (NR) 3/4
Keker (NR) 3/14

Source: https://abovethelaw.com/2022/01/biglaw- ... cker-2022/

At Milbank and confirming. New scale below. It's a 10k raise for juniors and 20k for midlevel and seniors.

2021-215k
2020-225k
2019-250k
2018-285k
2017-325k
2016-350k
2015-370k
2014-385k

Big if true

Mil(lionsOfDollarsInThe)bank stays winning, as always

ETA: I sure hope this bump is not pretext to kill off the special bonuses though…

Is this for real?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:07 am

Is this for real?

It goddamn better be. I used to think posting bullshit on stuff like this was funny, but then I turned 14. I guess we'll have to wait and see a few more confirmations, and give mods time to sort out whether it's just sock puppets.

Wanderingdrock wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:12 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:07 am

Is this for real?

It goddamn better be. I used to think posting bullshit on stuff like this was funny, but then I turned 14. I guess we'll have to wait and see a few more confirmations, and give mods time to sort out whether it's just sock puppets.

Yee of little faith, it's now on Above The Law

https://abovethelaw.com/2022/01/alert-m ... -new-year/

Confirmed by Milbank associate.

Bracing for DPW to $220. Let's go Neil Barr.

Makes sense with inflation being what it has been for the past year. If 7% is true, that'd be roughly $10k for juniors and $20k for midlevel/seniors.

DoveBodyWash wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:21 am

Bracing for DPW to $220. Let's go Neil Barr.

A +$5k increment is kind of ticky-tacky for firms at this level of wealth, no? My feeling is they either match, or they raise by another $10-20k across the board. Maybe we get Cravath back in the mix here to redeem themselves since we all (appropriately) shit on them for paltry EOY bonus.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:27 am

DoveBodyWash wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:21 am

Bracing for DPW to $220. Let's go Neil Barr.

A +$5k increment is kind of ticky-tacky for firms at this level of wealth, no? My feeling is they either match, or they raise by another $10-20k across the board. Maybe we get Cravath back in the mix here to redeem themselves since we all (appropriately) shit on them for paltry EOY bonus.

Given this is a random increase, I think firms will match and not raise-very little benefit optically I would think.

Issue is this likely nixes bonuses which would have been more generous.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:29 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:27 am

DoveBodyWash wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:21 am

Bracing for DPW to $220. Let's go Neil Barr.

A +$5k increment is kind of ticky-tacky for firms at this level of wealth, no? My feeling is they either match, or they raise by another $10-20k across the board. Maybe we get Cravath back in the mix here to redeem themselves since we all (appropriately) shit on them for paltry EOY bonus.

Given this is a random increase, I think firms will match and not raise-very little benefit optically I would think.

Issue is this likely nixes bonuses which would have been more generous.

Please let there be speical bonuses.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:29 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:27 am

DoveBodyWash wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:21 am

Bracing for DPW to $220. Let's go Neil Barr.

A +$5k increment is kind of ticky-tacky for firms at this level of wealth, no? My feeling is they either match, or they raise by another $10-20k across the board. Maybe we get Cravath back in the mix here to redeem themselves since we all (appropriately) shit on them for paltry EOY bonus.

Given this is a random increase, I think firms will match and not raise-very little benefit optically I would think.

Issue is this likely nixes bonuses which would have been more generous.

Still room for DPW to match + bonus (maybe decrease the bonus they'd budgeted for by the raise amount).

Long term, I think salary increases are better. It's harder to roll back salary. Extra bonuses were never going to last.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:39 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:29 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:27 am

DoveBodyWash wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:21 am

Bracing for DPW to $220. Let's go Neil Barr.

A +$5k increment is kind of ticky-tacky for firms at this level of wealth, no? My feeling is they either match, or they raise by another $10-20k across the board. Maybe we get Cravath back in the mix here to redeem themselves since we all (appropriately) shit on them for paltry EOY bonus.

Given this is a random increase, I think firms will match and not raise-very little benefit optically I would think.

Issue is this likely nixes bonuses which would have been more generous.

Still room for DPW to match + bonus (maybe decrease the bonus they'd budgeted for by the raise amount).

Long term, I think salary increases are better. It's harder to roll back salary. Extra bonuses were never going to last.

True if you are planning to stick around...

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:39 am

Long term, I think salary increases are better. It's harder to roll back salary. Extra bonuses were never going to last.

+1. Doesn't it give you better negotiation power when it comes to in-house salary? Guaranteed (salary) > Discretionary (bonus), even if the latter is more.

They don't want to give special bonuses. Take the class of 2017. Last year class of 2017 made 399 all in. This year, without this new pay bump and without special bonuses, class of 2017 would have stood to make 395. If they want to keep mid-senior levels, they can't pay them less YoY.

Any matches yet?

Junior associates will get around $500 and Senior associates around $1000 each month, after taxes of course! And taking into account inflation, we're back to 2021 salaries.

Since biglaw was going to remove special bonuses this year anyways, I will happily take a salary bump as consolation prize. And normalizing frequent inflation step-ups seems preferable to leaving salaries stuck (at $160K) for an entire decade (2007-2016).

In all seriousness, the TLS hivemind says that there are ⅓ odds that special bonuses go away this year. Source: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=311594. (I wish there were actual prediction markets on this so I could hedge the risk of 'no bonus' a bit...)

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:00 pm

Any matches yet?

I'm wondering how quickly matches will come since this was somewhat out of the blue (although, firms had to expect there was a chance that a special bonus may be announced, so maybe they were ready for to have some kind of comp discussion).

I'm sure there's also some fear that DPW raises or announces special bonuses on top of the scale increase. But I hope we see some matches today.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:02 pm

Junior associates will get around $500 and Senior associates around $1000 each month, after taxes of course! And taking into account inflation, we're back to 2021 salaries.

Such fucking whiners. Name another industry that has regularly given industry-wide base salary raises of 5-10% in the last few years.

thisismytlsuername wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:02 pm

Junior associates will get around $500 and Senior associates around $1000 each month, after taxes of course! And taking into account inflation, we're back to 2021 salaries.

Such fucking whiners. Name another industry that has regularly given industry-wide base salary raises of 5-10% in the last few years.

Yeah dude other people have it worse so we should all lick partners boots and be unreservedly grateful for inflation-matching raises.

thisismytlsuername wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:02 pm

Junior associates will get around $500 and Senior associates around $1000 each month, after taxes of course! And taking into account inflation, we're back to 2021 salaries.

Such fucking whiners. Name another industry that has regularly given industry-wide base salary raises of 5-10% in the last few years.

Biglaw equity partners

thisismytlsuername wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:02 pm

Junior associates will get around $500 and Senior associates around $1000 each month, after taxes of course! And taking into account inflation, we're back to 2021 salaries.

Such fucking whiners. Name another industry that has regularly given industry-wide base salary raises of 5-10% in the last few years.

Tech.

thisismytlsuername wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:02 pm

Junior associates will get around $500 and Senior associates around $1000 each month, after taxes of course! And taking into account inflation, we're back to 2021 salaries.

Such fucking whiners. Name another industry that has regularly given industry-wide base salary raises of 5-10% in the last few years.

You obviously keep tabs on all industries. You perfectly describe someone who lives in a bubble and thinks everything outside of your industry is bad. In case you haven't noticed, people in other professions are also thriving and doing well.