When the most recent wave of associate salary hikes swept California, Farella Braun & Martel wasted no time.
The 117-lawyer firm boosted first-year salaries to $135,000 in January to keep up with the Cooley Godwards and the Wilson Sonsinis.
“We wanted to be part of any initial move reflective of market rate increases,” recruiting partner Andrew Leibnitz said. “The marketplace has been hot and is heating up. Firms are now going to law schools they may have not gone to previously.”
Out of its sole office in San Francisco, Farella wants to compete for the very best associates, Leibnitz said. This year’s seven entry-level hires include graduates of Stanford, Yale, Boalt and Hastings. Although the recruits no doubt considered many factors before joining Farella, the extra $10,000 couldn’t have hurt.
Because first-year associate salaries at the largest law firms all recently converged at the $135,000 mark, The Recorder decided to focus its annual associate salary survey on mid-sized players.
But these days, the term “mid-size” covers a wide range of firms. Our survey divides the field into roughly three groups.
Farella represents one breed whose practice and billing rates allow it to recruit alongside larger competitors.
Then there are super-regional firms covering all of the West Coast and a few other key locations around the country, like Perkins Coie, or concentrated elsewhere but attempting to expand and extend its reach into California, like Holme Roberts & Owen.
Finally, some smaller shops aren’t trying to compete for the same recruits, and thus have salary structures � and less demanding billable hour targets � reflecting that strategic decision.
COMPETING WITH BIG FIRMS
Perkins Coie, whose home office is in Seattle, grew from 325 attorneys in 1996 to more than 600 today. Perkins opened in the Bay Area in 1998 and has grown here from 10 lawyers to about 55. Locally the firm emphasizes intellectual property and technology-related work.
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