As reported yesterday, many pundits have predicted that Cravath’s attractive new pay packets will trigger a wave of similar increases across New York’s most prestigious law firms as they scramble to stay competitive in the market for top-tier graduates. Twenty-four hours later, it is safe to say that the war for talent is officially on. It took less than one day for fellow Biglaw heavyweight Milbank Tweed to announce that it was also lifting its own associate pay bands to match the salaries on offer at Cravath. First-year associates at Milbank Tweed’s offices in New York, Los Angeles and Washington will now be receiving a base salary of $180,000 per year, stretching up to $315,000 per year for senior associates. Milbank chair Scott Edelman commented in Legal Week: ‘We are fortunate enough to have a terrific group of associates and we want them to have compensation consistent with top firms. It’s as simple as that.’ 

More to follow

According to reports in Above the Law, Californian boutique firm Hueston Hennigan was the first law firm to match Cravath’s new pay scale, announcing its own salary increase just four hours after news of Cravath’s first broke. However, several more major players have already indicated that the intend to lift their own salary brackets to keep pace with the Biglaw pay raise. Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Cahill, Gordon & Reindel have all publicly confirmed that they intend to match Cravath’s new salary levels, while a source close to Kirkland & Ellis has also suggested that the firm plans to follow suit. While Cravath’s pay raise applies to associates in London as well as those in the United States, it is not yet clear that similar increases at other firms will also extend across the Atlantic.