SAN FRANCISCO — It goes without saying that the associate salary wars are over. Firms have responded to a drop in business and a glut of talent with salary freezes, salary cuts, or even a wholesale revamping of their pay scales. But the retrenching effort so far hasn’t affected first-years nearly so much as it has mid-level associates, according to The Recorder ‘s annual temperature-taking of associate salaries. We compare 20 firms’ first-, third- and fifth-year compensation in this chart.
Two firms stopped paying existing first years $160,000 earlier this year: Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which is now paying them $144,000; and DLA Piper, which announced it has returned to $145,000 as part of 10 percent salary cuts for associates across the board. (Manatt, Phelps declined to comment on the salary and bonus numbers we report in this story and in the accompanying chart.)
