Finally, everyone’s being paid like a New York lawyer. Thanks to an informal wage freeze in the United States’ largest market, midlevels in other major cities caught up to the salaries of their New York counterparts this year, although they still lag behind in bonuses.
New York offices of Am Law 200 firms withheld raises for midlevels in 2008 after doling out pay hikes the previous two years — about $20,000 in 2006 and $15,000 in 2007. In early 2008 the New York offices of several firms, including Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, announced they would maintain last year’s salary rates.
