The firm of Williams & Connolly has bumped its first year associate pay to $180,000. This, obviously, is "well above market," as ATL reports. See Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Williams & Connolly to $180k. See also Skaddenfreude's earlier report from March about last year's W&C bump. What I find more impressive with this (other than the raw number) is that the annual increase hovers around 7% a year, which is also above most of the other firms' annual 5% increases.
Granted, there is more to the bonus structure and all of that (which W&C purportedly does not pay), but the question I have to all of this (as I always do), is what kind of life outside law do they expect any associate to have? I think the answer to this, as would be expected, is none. But boy, I'm sure this will send chills up any firm's spine as they decide whether NY will now bump to $190k and the remaining markets will bump to $160k. Sort of makes you forget we're heading into murky economic waters, doesn't it?
I'm not going to W&C, but I'm sure any clerk that is has got to be happy about this. This memo must have been a nice present for some people, and probably a bigger headache for others.
Also, and I'm not going to chime in on anything else about bonuses except post a link to the answer to an earlier question I had about Wachtell's 100% bonus structure.
Monday, December 17, 2007
The bump to $180k
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In re-reading this particular entry, I think I am coming across as much more insincere and jaded than I really am. It's great that W&C has bumped and I'm sure it will indirectly (or directly) affect the entire market.
What my concern is, however, is the same as it always is. Even now I meet plenty of law students who are snowballed into thinking that they are going to graduate and get these types of job. As I have pointed out on several occasions, this is rarely the case. Those who are getting these offers certainly earned their way to them (in most cases).
And on a somewhat related topic about Yale, this is a funny article that has been circulating among the clerkship circle. See James D. Gordon III, How Not to Succeed in Law School.
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