Kilpatrick Stockton will raise pay for its first-year associates to $145,000, matching the recent salary increases at Alston & Bird, King & Spalding and several other big firms. The market for first-year pay at Atlanta’s big firms was $130,000 before a round of pay raises that started in early August — the second this year.

The Kilpatrick raise, which was announced internally Aug. 31, right before the Labor Day holiday, will go into effect Jan. 1, 2008, as at other firms raising associate pay.