Michelman & Robinson exceeds Big Law with pay scale starting at $230K - Reuters
(Reuters) - Los Angeles-based midsize law firm Michelman & Robinson announced Tuesday a new associate salary scale starting at $230,000, outpacing Big Law's latest pay rate for first years.
The salary bumps taking effect in 2022 will award salary by "level" rather than class year at Michelman & Robinson, and will reach up to $450,000 for "level eight" associates.
The starting point of the new scale at 70-plus-lawyer Michelman & Robinson sits $25,000 higher than the current prevailing first-year salary at many of the nation's largest law firms.
Firm co-founder Sanford Michelman said the new salary scale was developed by a task force, but was subject to his final approval.
"The response by the associates is overwhelming because they actually didn't expect it to go this way," he said. "They expected it to be lower and scaled up over time."
The firm has been categorizing associates by level for the past decade, according to Michelman, who said the distinction has nothing to do with hours billed and doesn't necessarily correspond to law school class year.
"We have a list that we call 'objective standards' that we've created, and it's updated all the time," said Michelman. He said the list includes associates' ability to produce engagement letters and conflict waivers, teambuild and supervise.
Many law firms have raised salaries this year, at times as a response to heavy competition in the associate talent market, particularly for attorneys doing high-end transactional work.
The latest round of Big Law salary battles that began this summer brought the prevailing first-year pay rate up to $205,000 with incremental increases each year. Most large firms attached associate billable-hour requirements to the raises.
Though some midsize firms like Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, which has about 60 lawyers, matched Big Law, others like Morrison Cohen said they rarely hire first-year associates and that their associate salaries are merit based and not subject to a rigid scale.
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source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/michelman-robinson-exceeds-big-law-with-pay-scale-starting-230k-2021-10-05/
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