First Year Associate Salaries in NYC Rise Again

<p>50/ is not that great.... i get paid 15/hour as an intern......... so how is 50/ with a JD great?</p>

<p>its roughly 3.3 times higher than current, after finishing undergrad and grad i would personally expect more than just 3.3 times higher pay than an intern with no degree.</p>

<p>In my observation, billing 2800 hours is extremely atypical. 2000-2200 billed, out of 2500-2800 worked, is way closer to the norm outside of the very toughest firms. I'm at a big firm in a big city, and 2800 billable hours would make you one of the hardest-working associates in the firm. Even my friends in NY at firms ranked 5-10 do not bill that much.</p>

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$50/hr isn't that great? It's certainly too many hours, but $50 sounds pretty amazing. (For comparison, my first job will almost certainly pay less than $11/hr.)

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For a graduate degree, it's not "amazing".</p>

<p>It's five times what medical/surgical residents make. And I bet it's more than what college professors make. And I'm sure it's much higher than your average young lawyer.</p>

<p>Hanna, actually, at many law firms in NYC you wouldn't even be eligible for a bonus is you only billed 2000-2200 hours. At many firms, bonus eligibility begins at 2200-2400 hours billed, and the number of hours billed (as well as the quality of the associate's work and the success of the firm generally during the applicable year) are taken into account in an associate's review. </p>

<p>It is not at all unusual for an associate at a top law firm in NYC to bill 2600-3000 hours per year.</p>

<p>"At many firms, bonus eligibility begins at 2200-2400 hours billed"</p>

<p>What? At most of my friends' NY firms, bonuses are lockstep by class. Of course they don't all get the same review in January, but you get the bonus even if you didn't have a great year. What NY firms don't give a bonus to someone who billed 2399 hours?</p>

<p>Are there really any firms besides Cravath and Wachtell where the mean hours billed is above 2500? Maybe that's typical for associates who eventually make partner, but the mean across the class?</p>

<p>Bonuses are lockstep, but at many firms only if you hit the billable hours threshhold. The firms that pay the true lockstep bonuses are basically Cahill, Cleary, Cravath, Davis, Debevoise, Milbank, Paul Weiss, Shearman, Simpson, S&C, White & Case and Willkie. Wachtell pays bonuses on a scale like no other firm. The other big NYC firms all have billable hours requirements before bonus eligibility, though at some firms, like Skadden, those requirements are as low as 1700 hours per year. </p>

<p>You can certainly ask around, but any big law firm in NYC that has a good year is doing so because that firm is incredibly busy. Busy means that associates are billing well over 2200 hours per year, on average. Certainly, not every associate bills 2800 or 3000 hours in a year, but it's far from unusual. Most importantly, its generally not within an associate's ability to decide whether he or she will be one of those associates who does indeed bill 2800 hours in a year. I think that the only way to guarantee that one will not be someone who bills 2800 hours in a year would be to work in a department that traditionally doesn't work those hours, like employee benefits or tax or trusts and estates. Everyone else is fair game for billing a lot more hours than that associate would otherwise choose to bill in a year.</p>