Philadelphia’s Morgan, Lewis & Bockius says it will pay D.C. associates who work in the firm’s hottest practice areas on a higher scale than other lawyers in the Washington office. First-year associates in the litigation; antitrust; business and finance; intellectual property; and FDA practices will be paid $125,000, including a $10,000 bonus for reaching the firm’s 2,000-hour target. Meanwhile, starting associates in other areas will be paid just $110,000.
“When we took a look at our different practice areas, we found that some are affected by the same underlying economic factors driving Silicon Valley and Wall Street and some are not,” explains Michael Kelly, firmwide managing partner for legal personnel. “No business other than law firms pays the going rate for the hottest employees to everyone across the board.”