Ever since Menlo Park, Calif.’s Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian announced its bold new associate pay last month, the Bay Area legal community has been in the grips of salary hysteria.

First, the feverish speculation centered around which firms would be first to match Gunderson’s $145,000. Then it focused on when the rest of the dominoes would fall — and what number combinations they’d turn up.