The salary marketis starting to crystallize now. Mayer Brown today joined other top tier firms in restoring associate salaries back to pre-recession levels. That means everyone is being bumped up two levels, putting all Mayer Brown associates where they would have been had salaries never been frozen in the first place. There are still some minor differences between the firms – for example, no word yet on whether Mayer Brown will issue an extra bonus to make up for the lost salary in 2009, but these differences affect past compensation and not the state of the salary market going forward.
The question is, will the market respond? Several firms that have thawed salaries have only moved their associates up one level. Will this put pressure on them to reconsider that decision? And how will it affect the salary market for those firms that have adopted or are intending to adopt a merit based compensation plan? It’s too soon to say, but when it happens, you will read about it here.
Mayer Brown is one of the largest global law firms both by number of lawyers and revenue. The firm has over 1,800 lawyers in key business centers across the Americas, Asia and Europe.
