{"id":157014,"date":"2026-07-16T10:45:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/16\/waiting-on-cravath-biglaws-salary-silence-is-getting-ridiculous\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T10:45:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:45:30","slug":"waiting-on-cravath-biglaws-salary-silence-is-getting-ridiculous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/16\/waiting-on-cravath-biglaws-salary-silence-is-getting-ridiculous\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting On Cravath: Biglaw\u2019s Salary Silence Is Getting Ridiculous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is July 16. Forty-four days have passed since Milbank announced that it would be raising associate salaries<\/a> by $10,000 to $20,000, based on class year. Outside of a few early movers, much of Biglaw has spent the last six weeks pretending Milbank never made the announcement. Boutique firms, on the other hand, have really stepped up, awarding raises left and right<\/a>. But what\u2019s going on with Biglaw?<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t exactly a mystery. Many of the industry\u2019s largest firms are waiting for Cravath. We\u2019ve played this waiting game before when it comes to compensation, but this is getting to be a bit much.\u00a0Historically, Cravath hasn\u2019t made firms wait this long. Three weeks has generally been the outer edge of the firm\u2019s delay before weighing in on salary increases. To that end, in 2023, Milbank announced raises on November 7<\/a>, and Cravath responded on November 28<\/a>. This year? We\u2019re now sitting at six weeks\u2026 and counting.<\/p>\n

How much longer is Cravath going to keep the rest of the market waiting?<\/p>\n

Nobody actually believes these raises aren\u2019t coming. The industry\u2019s most profitable firms aren\u2019t going to let Milbank permanently outflank them on compensation. Associates know it. Recruiters know it. Partners know it. Everyone knows it. So why keep everyone twisting in the wind? <\/p>\n

The longer this drags on, the stranger it becomes. Is any firm willing to announce raises without Cravath\u2019s blessing?<\/p>\n

Until Cravath makes its move, it looks like much of Biglaw will continue sitting on the sidelines. The longer the silence drags on, the more absurd the waiting game becomes.<\/p>\n

As always, if your firm announces raises, send us the memo. We\u2019d love to report on something other than silence.<\/p>\n

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. So when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477<\/a>) or\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0(subject line: \u201c[Firm Name] Matches\u201d). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don\u2019t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019d like to sign up for ATL\u2019s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we\u2019ll also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don\u2019t need to do anything. You\u2019ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.<\/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 Waiting On Cravath: Biglaw\u2019s Salary Silence Is Getting Ridiculous<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Today is July 16. Forty-four days have passed since Milbank announced that it would be raising associate salaries<\/a> by $10,000 to $20,000, based on class year. Outside of a few early movers, much of Biglaw has spent the last six weeks pretending Milbank never made the announcement. Boutique firms, on the other hand, have really stepped up, awarding raises left and right<\/a>. But what\u2019s going on with Biglaw?<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t exactly a mystery. Many of the industry\u2019s largest firms are waiting for Cravath. We\u2019ve played this waiting game before when it comes to compensation, but this is getting to be a bit much.\u00a0Historically, Cravath hasn\u2019t made firms wait this long. Three weeks has generally been the outer edge of the firm\u2019s delay before weighing in on salary increases. To that end, in 2023, Milbank announced raises on November 7<\/a>, and Cravath responded on November 28<\/a>. This year? We\u2019re now sitting at six weeks\u2026 and counting.<\/p>\n

How much longer is Cravath going to keep the rest of the market waiting?<\/p>\n

Nobody actually believes these raises aren\u2019t coming. The industry\u2019s most profitable firms aren\u2019t going to let Milbank permanently outflank them on compensation. Associates know it. Recruiters know it. Partners know it. Everyone knows it. So why keep everyone twisting in the wind? <\/p>\n

The longer this drags on, the stranger it becomes. Is any firm willing to announce raises without Cravath\u2019s blessing?<\/p>\n

Until Cravath makes its move, it looks like much of Biglaw will continue sitting on the sidelines. The longer the silence drags on, the more absurd the waiting game becomes.<\/p>\n

As always, if your firm announces raises, send us the memo. We\u2019d love to report on something other than silence.<\/p>\n

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. So when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477<\/a>) or\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0(subject line: \u201c[Firm Name] Matches\u201d). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don\u2019t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019d like to sign up for ATL\u2019s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we\u2019ll also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don\u2019t need to do anything. You\u2019ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.<\/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":"

Today is July 16. Forty-four days have passed since Milbank announced that it would be raising associate salaries by $10,000 to $20,000, based on class year. Outside of a few early movers, much of Biglaw has spent the last six weeks pretending Milbank never made the announcement. Boutique firms, on the other hand, have really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":156989,"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-157014","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\/07\/Staci-Zaretsky-ng2H3z.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157014","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=157014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}