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V&E Raises Associate Salaries in Texas and D.C.
Texas Lawyer
July 19, 2007
Vinson & Elkins took the plunge on Tuesday, becoming the first Texas-based firm to increase Texas associate salaries to match the raises New York-based firms doled out to associates earlier this year. The firm also raised salaries in its Washington, D.C., office.
Joe Dilg, managing partner of Houston-based V&E, announced the raises yesterday in an internal memo. Effective Aug. 1, first-year associates will earn $160,000; second-year associates $170,000; third-year associates $185,000; fourth-year associates $210,000; fifth-year associates $230,000; sixth-year associates $250,000; seventh-year associates $255,000; and eighth-year associates $260,000.
Starting in their third year, however, V&E associates will be ineligible for a portion of those raises unless they work 2,000 firm credit hours, which can include up to 150 pro bono hours. The "deferred" portion of the base salary for V&E third-year associates is $15,000; for fourth-year associates $35,000; for fifth-year associates $50,000; and for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-year associates $65,000.
Dilg notes that all associates, even if they don't bill 2,000 hours and earn the "deferred" portion of their base salaries, will receive raises. In 2006, as with other Texas firms, V&E had raised its first-year associate base salary to $135,000.
"We spent a lot of time talking to our associates," says Dilg about the novel structuring of the firm's new associate pay scale. He says associates wanted raises to reflect the increases in the national market, but they didn't necessarily want all the pressure linked to the New York market. "Sometimes people have things going on in their lives that are not all about work," Dilg says.
With the new associate salary structure, Dilg believes V&E associates will be able to earn high salaries comparable to those in New York, but at the same time their pay will not be docked significantly or for the long term if one year they cannot bill 2,000 hours. Instead, they will receive a reduction in salary for that year only.
