We’ve been speculating for a while about the Biglaw salary logjam. Back in January, Milbank announced raises, but the matches were not nearly as fast and furious as associates would hope. But then yesterday, Davis Polk, part of the troika of Biglaw salary leaders (along with the aforementioned Milbank and Cravath), made its move.
The new Davis Polk scale matches the salary numbers for junior associates, but comes over the top for midlevel and senior associates. With that piece in place, we expect to see many more matches. And only a few hours after Davis Polk’s announcement, the matches began.
Paul Weiss, ranked 20th in the Am Law 100 with $1,543,730,000 in gross revenue in 2020, was one of the firms quick to match this new scale. Yesterday, the firm announced salary increases according to the following grid:
These raises will be retroactive to January 1 — the same effective date as the Milbank bump. They also noted that the previously announced discretionary top-off bonuses for attorneys will hit bank accounts in March 15, the same day as the raise amounts. You can read the full memo on the next page.
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