The bump to $180k

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. Read more!