When Cravath introduced a wage hike earlier this week, matching the Milbank scale for junior associates and coming excessive for the extra skilled attorneys, it was a sign to the remainder of Biglaw to get their acts collectively. Since then, there was a flood of different high companies saying their very own set of raises.
The latest agency to get on board with affiliate raises is Sidley. And this isn’t a shock, the agency is ranked quantity 6 within the nation with $2,922,634,000 in gross income final yr. *Not* responding to the wave of raises swirling by way of the highest of Biglaw could be the larger story.
The announcement went out earlier this morning, and the wage scale on the agency is as follows:
| Class 12 months | 2024 Wage |
| 2015 | 445,000 |
| 2016 | 435,000 |
| 2017 | 420,000 |
| 2018 | 390,000 |
| 2019 | 365,000 |
| 2020 | 310,000 |
| 2021 | 260,000 |
| 2022 | 235,000 |
| 2023 | 225,000 |
This scale is in keeping with the Cravath scale introduced earlier this week, with a small exception that’s main for senior associates. Nearly all of companies which have introduced raises thus far have positioned the category of 2015 off the compensation grid, that means their wage is individualized. Sidley is the primary agency to standardize ninth-year salaries.
Moreover, the agency introduced their year-end bonuses:
| Class 12 months | 2023 12 months-end Base Bonus |
| 2015+ | $115,000 |
| 2016 | $115,000 |
| 2017 | $105,000 |
| 2018 | $90,000 |
| 2019 | $75,000 |
| 2020 | $57,500 |
| 2021 | $30,000 |
| 2022 | $20,000 |
Plus there’s further excellent news for the tremendous excessive billers and people with “distinctive efficiency” on the agency:
As in prior years, we additionally acknowledge associates who’ve greater productiveness and/or distinctive efficiency with further bonuses that exceed the bottom bonus quantities, leading to these associates receiving greater than the bottom bonus for his or her class yr, and in some cases considerably extra.
The total memo is on the market on the subsequent web page.
Keep in mind everybody, we rely in your tricks to keep on high of necessary bonus updates, so when your agency matches, please textual content us (646-820-8477) or e-mail us (topic line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). Please embrace the memo if out there. You may take a photograph of the memo and ship it through textual content or e-mail in the event you don’t need to ahead the unique PDF or Phrase file.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Legislation, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Considering Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the perfect, so please join together with her. Be happy to e-mail her with any ideas, questions, or feedback and observe her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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