If you’re a leader at an Am Law 200 firm, you maybe didn’t love everything about last July’s starting associate salary increase from $160,000 to $180,000. Yes, the troops were overdue a raise but, wow, that’s a lot of cost. But after bemoaning the hit to 2016 profitability, you probably shrugged your shoulders and went back to work.
Not so fast. A one-step, across-the-board double-digit percent increase in its largest single cost component is a seismic event for any industry. The aftershocks can be severe.
