Law firm Milbank raises associate salaries, setting new $225K minimum

Nov 7 (Reuters) – New York law firm Milbank has once again increased its attorney salaries, after it helped spark raises across the legal industry when it boosted its pay scale for associates last year.

First-year associates at Milbank will see their base pay jump from $215,000 to $225,000 under the firm’s new seniority-based salary scale, according to a Tuesday internal memo viewed by Reuters. The scale for eighth-year associates will top out at $425,000.

The firm will also pay year-end bonuses to associates ranging from $15,000 pro-rated to $115,000 based on seniority, the memo said. Bonuses will be paid to associates in good standing on or before Dec. 31. Those figures are in line with last year’s bonus scale across major U.S. law firms.

“We continue to be very busy across the firm, and we expect that we will continue to see high levels of activity for the remainder of the year,” Milbank chair Scott Edelman said in the memo.

The new base salaries take effect in January.

Milbank, which has hundreds of lawyers in 12 offices globally, appears to be the first big U.S. law firm to announce a salary bump and publicly set year-end bonuses this year. Peer firms typically follow shortly after.

Milbank and other large law firms have not increased associate salaries since early 2022. Firms have faced falling client demand, in particular for mergers and acquisitions work, creating a leaner environment for the corporate legal industry after a booming global deal market in 2021.

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