It’s been about two years since Biglaw’s last salary increase, and that surely means associates are due for another one soon… right? The Cravath scale currently ranges from $225,000 to $435,000, and unfortunately, it’s looking more and more like lawyers may need to lower their expectations for a compensation hike. Not only is there “less pressure on firms to increase salaries in order to remain competitive,” but the M&A market — Biglaw’s lifeline — is sputtering, leading industry insiders to cast even more doubt upon raises for associates in 2025.
As noted by Bloomberg Law, the timing doesn’t seem to be right for raises. Here are some additional details:
M&A work is “the engine of the [Biglaw] firms,” said Michelle Fivel, partner and co-founder at search firm Hatch Henderson Fivel. It’s also a bellwether for associate hiring across firms, even in seemingly unrelated practices like litigation.
Deals activity ticked up by nearly 19% in the first half of the year compared to the same time last year, but not nearly at the rate expected when President Donald Trump won a return trip to the White House. Trump’s tariff wars and global unrest tamped down earlier expectations for an M&A boom.
“New deal flow is not what had been hoped for with a Republican administration coming into the White House and doing the things that traditionally are seen as business friendly,” Fivel said. “That is kind of a disappointment, and frankly, a surprise,” she said.
This M&A malaise is just one of the things that led Ru Bhatt, a New York-based recruiter for Major Lindsey & Africa, to say, “I don’t think that this is probably the year that there will be any sort of raises when it comes to base pay.”
Even if one firm does decide to make a salary move in a down market, other firms will surely match — but not all will be able to do so, says Summer Eberhard, a California-based legal recruiter at Lateral Link. “While [Biglaw] firms want to be competitive on compensation, some face genuine constraints due to their rate structures, client mix, and financial position. For some, matching may not be viable, regardless of their intention to remain competitive for top talent.”
With the talent wars over and the markets unpredictable, bigger salaries may not be on the table, but that doesn’t necessarily mean bigger bonuses won’t happen. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a firm comes out and decides to share a little bit more of that wealth,” Bhatt said. “But at the same time, there’s a lot of uncertainty and people are being really cautious in the market.”
What do you think will happen come year end in terms of salaries and bonuses? Cross your fingers, associates!
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Associate Salaries Plateau as Big Law Grapples With Listless M&A [Bloomberg Law]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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