New York firms led the country in increasing associate salaries last year, especially when it came to junior associates. But senior associates at the city's largest firms didn't always enjoy the same pay bump, according to National Association for Law Placement Inc. data released Thursday.

The figures suggest that even at New York offices that hiked up base associate pay to $180,000, many firm leaders shied away from large pay increases across their firms' associate ranks.

“There was less uniformity in the ways law firms treated those upper-level associate salaries,” said James Leipold, NALP's executive director. “The market was more measured. Firms had to make an independent judgment, both of what they could afford and what was appropriate.”