The Associate Compensation Race Is On With Latest Set Of Raises

The dominoes are starting to fall, people.

Hot on the heels of Milbank’s announcement that associates would be seeing raises of $10,000 to $20,000 effective July 1, California and New York litigation boutique Hueston Hennigan has stepped up and matched the new scale. And before you ask, yes, this is in addition to the summer bonuses of up to $35,000 that HH already announced.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate what’s happening here. Hueston Hennigan, a firm well known for punching above its weight in the compensation wars, is not just matching the new Milbank salary scale, but doing so while associates are already sitting on summer bonuses that range from $10,000 to $35,000 (with the caveat that attorneys must be on track to bill 2,000 hours to be eligible). That is an extremely good summer to be an HH associate.

The firmwide email announcing the raises:

This is very much on brand for a firm that has a history of making noise in the compensation conversation. And it raises the obvious question: who’s next? Milbank announcing a new scale is always the opening bell, and HH (and McDermott Will & Schulte) answering it this quickly (plus the added context of already-announced summer bonuses) is going to put pressure on every other firm that wants to compete for elite talent.

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of compensation updates, so when your firm announces or matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus/Matches”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.