Elite Biglaw Firms Are 'Likely' To Match Milbank, But Will Anyone Raise Salaries Even Higher?
When will Biglaw firms match the $225K salary scale? All it takes is one firm to start a 'domino' effect.
Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
[I]f every other firm from this moment forward, just held their fire and didn’t raise, it would just be Milbank raising, and no one would need to raise. But history suggests at least one more firm will match, and that’ll cause others, and it’ll domino across the industry.
— Kent Zimmermann, a law firm management consultant with the Zeughauser Group, in comments given to the American Lawyer on the likelihood that other elite Biglaw firms will match Milbank’s recent salary raise for associates. Given the state of the market, Zimmermann said, it “[doesn’t] suggest to most firms that they need to raise compensation in the absence of other firms raising compensation.” Legal analysts believe it is “likely” or “very” likely that at least the top 25 Am Law firms will match the new salary scale, and some firms may even try to go above Milbank’s scale.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
