{"id":153904,"date":"2026-06-05T16:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/05\/why-milbank-decided-to-rewrite-the-biglaw-salary-scale-instead-of-writing-a-bonus-check\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T16:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:01:07","slug":"why-milbank-decided-to-rewrite-the-biglaw-salary-scale-instead-of-writing-a-bonus-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/05\/why-milbank-decided-to-rewrite-the-biglaw-salary-scale-instead-of-writing-a-bonus-check\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Milbank Decided To Rewrite The Biglaw Salary Scale Instead Of Writing A Bonus Check"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Milbank\u2019s decision to raise salaries as opposed to giving another bonus has a far bigger impact because it impacts so many associates over the long run. The bonus is really, theoretically, meant for exceptional years\u2014this is going to be more impactful than any bonus would have been.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0Stephanie Biderman, an associate recruiter for Major Lindsey & Africa<\/em><\/strong>, in comments given to the American Lawyer<\/a>, concerning the impact of Milbank\u2019s decision to raise associate salaries<\/a>, rather than hand out a one-time special bonus. Milbank\u2019s raise was quickly adopted by McDermott<\/a>, Hueston Hennigan<\/a>, VKHH<\/a>, Quinn Emanuel<\/a>, and Katten<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Why Milbank Decided To Rewrite The Biglaw Salary Scale Instead Of Writing A Bonus Check<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Milbank\u2019s decision to raise salaries as opposed to giving another bonus has a far bigger impact because it impacts so many associates over the long run. The bonus is really, theoretically, meant for exceptional years\u2014this is going to be more impactful than any bonus would have been.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0Stephanie Biderman, an associate recruiter for Major Lindsey & Africa<\/em><\/strong>, in comments given to the American Lawyer<\/a>, concerning the impact of Milbank\u2019s decision to raise associate salaries<\/a>, rather than hand out a one-time special bonus. Milbank\u2019s raise was quickly adopted by McDermott<\/a>, Hueston Hennigan<\/a>, VKHH<\/a>, Quinn Emanuel<\/a>, and Katten<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>, X\/Twitter<\/a>, and Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day. Milbank\u2019s decision to raise salaries as opposed to giving another bonus has a far bigger impact because it impacts so many associates over the long run. The bonus is really, theoretically, meant for exceptional years\u2014this is going to be more impactful than any bonus would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Staci-Zaretsky-Dlz1PU.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}