It has been more than a week since Milbank fired the starting gun on the 2026 salary wars, and the compensation scorecard is filling up fast. Recruiters predicted a rapid wave of matches. And they were right — with one notable catch: the firms doing the matching are almost all litigation boutiques.
Look at the current scorecard. Of the firms that have moved on salary increases since Milbank’s announcement, the list reads like a who’s who of elite commercial litigation shops: Hueston Hennigan; Vartabedian Katz Hester Haynes; Quinn Emanuel; Groom Law Group; AZA; Elsberg Baker & Maruri; Wilkinson Stekloff. And of course, Susman Godfrey, which didn’t just match Milbank, they went above it, setting off their own boutique compensation arms race that led to Holwell Shuster & Goldberg following suit. (Kellogg Hansen is also above market, but they have been for a while without others matching it.) The one traditional Biglaw firm that moved (McDermott) did so on the same day as Milbank’s announcement, before the ink was barely dry. And then… mostly silence from the big guys.
In 2023, when Milbank announced raises in November, the Biglaw matches came within weeks. Cravath moved on November 28, three weeks after Milbank, and once Cravath spoke, the floodgates opened. You can see it in the 2023 scorecard: the list of matches went from a trickle to a torrent the moment the market had its official blessing from Cravath. That’s how the compensation cascade works: Milbank starts it, Cravath ratifies it (or comes over the top), everyone else falls in line.
We are not there yet in 2026.
The working theory, and it’s a reasonable one, is that traditional Biglaw is waiting. Not because the money isn’t there (Biglaw had a very good 2025, and the Am Law 100 numbers reflect it). And they’re not philosophically opposed to paying associates more, hell they know they have to pay top of the market to keep the elite talent train. But because the lockstep model runs on consensus, and nobody wants to be the firm that moved before Cravath and then had to recalibrate. So the white-shoe crowd watches and waits while the litigation boutiques do the early running.
Which brings us to the other story happening in parallel, and it’s what’s getting the Biglaw associates talking (well, this and the epic Knicks run).
The Susman scale is a boutique phenomenon (sure, Susman’s revenue puts it in the rarified air of Biglaw, but at its heart, it’s a boutique) and it’s a reflection of what elite litigation-only shops can do when they run lean, bill at premium rates, and compete fiercely for a small pool of exceptional litigators. It’s a different market than the lockstep Biglaw world, and the Milbank scale remains the operative benchmark for the broader industry unless and until someone disrupts it at the top.
Who could do that? Realistically, Cravath. That’s always been the dynamic: Milbank moves, the market follows, and the whole thing resets only if Cravath comes in over the top. Davis Polk could theoretically make a move too, but if history is any guide, the firm most likely to shake up the Biglaw compensation ladder is Cravath. Until that happens, Milbank’s new numbers are the standard.
There’s one more thing worth noting here, and it’s directed squarely at the Biglaw firms still sitting on their hands: the raises are effective July 1. That means you have a minute before your associates are technically behind on pay. But here’s the thing: everyone knows you’re going to match. You know you’re going to match. The only people pretending otherwise are the partners who haven’t sent the memo yet.
So why the wait? Why give your associates the heartburn? The only plausible strategic reason to hold off is the prospect of a re-raise — if Cravath comes in over the top for some class years, as it did in 2023, you’d theoretically have to run the administrative process twice. But is that really so onerous that it justifies leaving your associates to refresh their inboxes and wonder if their firm values them? The administrative burden of a second compensation memo is approximately zero compared to the goodwill cost of making people feel like an afterthought during a salary war everyone is watching in real time.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post The 2026 Salary Wars Are On… So Where Is Biglaw? appeared first on Above the Law.
It has been more than a week since Milbank fired the starting gun on the 2026 salary wars, and the compensation scorecard is filling up fast. Recruiters predicted a rapid wave of matches. And they were right — with one notable catch: the firms doing the matching are almost all litigation boutiques.
Look at the current scorecard. Of the firms that have moved on salary increases since Milbank’s announcement, the list reads like a who’s who of elite commercial litigation shops: Hueston Hennigan; Vartabedian Katz Hester Haynes; Quinn Emanuel; Groom Law Group; AZA; Elsberg Baker & Maruri; Wilkinson Stekloff. And of course, Susman Godfrey, which didn’t just match Milbank, they went above it, setting off their own boutique compensation arms race that led to Holwell Shuster & Goldberg following suit. (Kellogg Hansen is also above market, but they have been for a while without others matching it.) The one traditional Biglaw firm that moved (McDermott) did so on the same day as Milbank’s announcement, before the ink was barely dry. And then… mostly silence from the big guys.
In 2023, when Milbank announced raises in November, the Biglaw matches came within weeks. Cravath moved on November 28, three weeks after Milbank, and once Cravath spoke, the floodgates opened. You can see it in the 2023 scorecard: the list of matches went from a trickle to a torrent the moment the market had its official blessing from Cravath. That’s how the compensation cascade works: Milbank starts it, Cravath ratifies it (or comes over the top), everyone else falls in line.
We are not there yet in 2026.
The working theory, and it’s a reasonable one, is that traditional Biglaw is waiting. Not because the money isn’t there (Biglaw had a very good 2025, and the Am Law 100 numbers reflect it). And they’re not philosophically opposed to paying associates more, hell they know they have to pay top of the market to keep the elite talent train. But because the lockstep model runs on consensus, and nobody wants to be the firm that moved before Cravath and then had to recalibrate. So the white-shoe crowd watches and waits while the litigation boutiques do the early running.
Which brings us to the other story happening in parallel, and it’s what’s getting the Biglaw associates talking (well, this and the epic Knicks run).
The Susman scale is a boutique phenomenon (sure, Susman’s revenue puts it in the rarified air of Biglaw, but at its heart, it’s a boutique) and it’s a reflection of what elite litigation-only shops can do when they run lean, bill at premium rates, and compete fiercely for a small pool of exceptional litigators. It’s a different market than the lockstep Biglaw world, and the Milbank scale remains the operative benchmark for the broader industry unless and until someone disrupts it at the top.
Who could do that? Realistically, Cravath. That’s always been the dynamic: Milbank moves, the market follows, and the whole thing resets only if Cravath comes in over the top. Davis Polk could theoretically make a move too, but if history is any guide, the firm most likely to shake up the Biglaw compensation ladder is Cravath. Until that happens, Milbank’s new numbers are the standard.
There’s one more thing worth noting here, and it’s directed squarely at the Biglaw firms still sitting on their hands: the raises are effective July 1. That means you have a minute before your associates are technically behind on pay. But here’s the thing: everyone knows you’re going to match. You know you’re going to match. The only people pretending otherwise are the partners who haven’t sent the memo yet.
So why the wait? Why give your associates the heartburn? The only plausible strategic reason to hold off is the prospect of a re-raise — if Cravath comes in over the top for some class years, as it did in 2023, you’d theoretically have to run the administrative process twice. But is that really so onerous that it justifies leaving your associates to refresh their inboxes and wonder if their firm values them? The administrative burden of a second compensation memo is approximately zero compared to the goodwill cost of making people feel like an afterthought during a salary war everyone is watching in real time.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
