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NYC Legal Salaries Rise to $160,000POSTED March 2, 2007 NEW YORK -- The starting salary for first-year lawyers keeps on going up at New York's top law firms. One of the largest firms -- Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett -- announced in January in a memo that new hires starting this fall out of law school will earn a base salary of $160,000, up from $145,000 the previous year. The memo was from firm Chairman Pete Ruegger and first published in AbovetheLaw.com. The text is mentioned below: "The Firm has been very busy and we expect the high level of activity to continue. We are proud of the results we are helping our clients achieve. We believe we have the finest legal team of any global law firm. In appreciation of your efforts, we are pleased to increase associate base salaries as follows, effective January 1, 2007: Class of 2006 - $160,000 We are also raising the base salary for the members of the Class of 2007, who will arrive in the fall, to $160,000." The hefty increase in salary shows the level of competition among other firms for the best and brightest law graduates. Most of the major NY firms will likely match the salary increase at Simpson Thacher Bartlett. The expense of rising salaries will affect the partners of top law firms who will have to pay this increase out of their share of firm profits. But don't feel sorry for them, partners usually bring in anywhere from $1-3 million per year. |
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