Faegre & Benson Cuts Associate Starting Salaries

By Tina Peng

Law360, New York (September 16, 2009) -- Faegre & Benson LLP has trimmed starting salaries for new associates in its Minneapolis office from $120,000 to $110,000, firm spokesman Thomas Schierholz confirmed Wednesday.

Starting salary in the firm's Des Moines office will be $95,000, down from $100,000, and in London it will be £50,000, down from £55,000, Schierholz said.

In a memo acquired by blog Above the Law, the firm said it had been monitoring changes in starting salaries across the country and had been listening to client concerns about the cost of legal services.

“We did not come quickly to the decision to makes these changes,” it said. “But all things considered, we believe our new starting salaries to be competitive in the evolving marketplace for talent and responsive to client expectations in the evolving marketplace for legal services.”

No changes will be made in the 2009 monthly salaries of current associates, and 2010 monthly salaries for current associates will be set later this year, it said in the memo.

Effective Sept. 1, King & Spalding LLP made the annualized salary for U.S. partner-track associates equal to their 2008 salary, Above the Law reported. Partner-track associates in Atlanta and Charlotte saw an additional market-based reduction equal to an annualized $10,000, according to the blog.

The salary for U.S. counsel, other lawyers and consultants was reduced by 5 percent, according to a memo posted by Above the Law.

And Perkins Coie LLP in August decided to reduce the salaries of its associates by 3.8 percent.

The move was first revealed in a firmwide voice mail from managing partner Robert Giles, who also mentioned that there would be deferred salary rollbacks in some offices until competitors started to reduce salaries themselves.

In a survey released in August, the National Association of Legal Professionals found that median starting pay at the biggest firms in many cities had peaked at $130,000, down from an average of $160,000 in the past few years.

The lowered figure is “likely to be the apogee of large firm salaries for the foreseeable future and represents the culmination of increases since 2006,” the study said.

According to the NALP — an association for legal career professionals — while the overall median starting salary for associates was $130,000, it ranged from $70,000 at firms of two to 25 lawyers to $135,000 at firms of 501 to 1,000 lawyers, and up to $160,000 at firms of more than 1,000 lawyers.

--Additional reporting by Anne Urda