Lucky associates at one law firm in Atlanta are making a whopping $180,000 in their first year on the job, according to the National Association for Law Placement Inc. But they are hardly the norm.

The median Atlanta starting salary remained at $135,000 as of Jan. 1 for the 11 firms participating in NALP's annual associate salary survey. The figure didn't budge from NALP's prior report, despite the round of pay raises that swept Atlanta's largest firms last summer, led locally by King & Spalding and Alston & Bird.

The raises bumped up starting salaries from $135,000 to $155,000 at the city's largest firms, with corresponding increases up the associate pay scale. But lower salaries at some Atlanta firms appear to have kept the median in check. The NALP presents the firms' data in the aggregate, without naming any firms. Nationally, more than 500 firms participated in the survey, with large firms of 251 or more lawyers making up 70 percent of the responses.