Lawyer Pay
Firms take associate salaries higher despite looming AI threats
Salaries for associates in BigLaw are continuing to climb despite fears that artificial intelligence will replace some of their jobs. (Photo by J Studios/Getty Images)
Salaries for associates in BigLaw are continuing to climb despite fears that artificial intelligence will replace some of their jobs.
More law firms have moved to match the new associate salary scale set by Milbank, which raised its starting salary for associates to $235,000 earlier this month, Bloomberg Law reports. Its most senior associates now make as much as $455,000.
Recruiters told Bloomberg Law that these salary raises are at direct odds with the rise of AI, which has threatened to change how firms operate and recruit associates.
“I’ve had conversations with major partners at firms who are absolutely terrified about what’s going to happen to the legal industry,” Sean Burke, the founder of legal recruiter Whistler Partners, told Bloomberg Law.
“With these top firms raising the rates so high, and with AI coming, at what point is there going to be a reckoning about how much money these firms really can charge going by the hour when AI should make this cost less?” Burke also said.
Milbank was followed by McDermott Will & Schulte, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Katten Muchin Rosenman and Seward & Kissel, Bloomberg Law reports. This week, Susman Godfrey moved its starting salary for associates up to $240,000.
Other recruiters told Bloomberg Law that they haven’t yet seen firms scale back their hiring because of AI.
“They’re investing in both and wanting to figure out how that works together to produce the most cost effective, but profitable service,” Nicole Donnelly, a co-founder of New York-based Cardinal Search Partners, told Bloomberg Law.
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