{"id":161378,"date":"2026-08-24T13:22:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/24\/milbank-is-opening-a-chicago-office-and-bringing-its-pay-scale-with-it\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:22:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:22:54","slug":"milbank-is-opening-a-chicago-office-and-bringing-its-pay-scale-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/24\/milbank-is-opening-a-chicago-office-and-bringing-its-pay-scale-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Milbank Is Opening A Chicago Office \u2014 And Bringing Its Pay Scale With It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Milbank\u2019s banner year rolls on. The firm rewrote Biglaw\u2019s salary scale<\/a> in June, stacked special summer bonuses on top<\/a>, and waved its incoming class in early<\/a> because business was too good to wait. The latest chapter in Milbank\u2019s 2026 is its arrival in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The firm announced Monday<\/a> that it\u2019s opening an office in Chicago, a new market for a firm that sets the going rate everywhere that counts\u2026 even most of Biglaw hasn\u2019t actually signed onto yet. The promised wave of matches has been more of a trickle<\/a>. Plenty of firms, many of Chicago\u2019s homegrown giants among them, still haven\u2019t put the new numbers in writing. Everyone assumes they will\u2026 but so far, they haven\u2019t announced a thing.<\/p>\n

Which makes Milbank\u2019s timing pointed. It\u2019s arriving as the highest bidder in a town where the locals \u2014 Kirkland, Sidley, Mayer Brown, Winston & Strawn, Jenner \u2014 have so far stayed quiet on the new scale. A price-setting competitor recruiting on your home turf tends to concentrate the mind on comp.<\/p>\n

Leading the flag-planting is Nadav Klugman, a renewable-energy and project-finance partner Milbank poached from White & Case, where he co-headed the global project development and finance practice. He\u2019ll be based in the new Chicago office once it opens, joining the firm\u2019s Global Project, Energy & Infrastructure Finance Group. Chairman Scott Edelman was upfront that this is a talent play, calling Chicago \u201can important new market for the firm to attract first-level talent that will allow us to better serve our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the pressure just changed shape for Chicago\u2019s Biglaw stalwarts. It\u2019s one thing to quietly wait out a salary bump announced from New York. It\u2019s another when the firm that set the number opens down the street and starts hiring. Chicago firms, the clock that\u2019s been ticking all summer just got a lot louder.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The post Milbank Is Opening A Chicago Office \u2014 And Bringing Its Pay Scale With It<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Milbank\u2019s banner year rolls on. The firm rewrote Biglaw\u2019s salary scale<\/a> in June, stacked special summer bonuses on top<\/a>, and waved its incoming class in early<\/a> because business was too good to wait. The latest chapter in Milbank\u2019s 2026 is its arrival in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The firm announced Monday<\/a> that it\u2019s opening an office in Chicago, a new market for a firm that sets the going rate everywhere that counts\u2026 even most of Biglaw hasn\u2019t actually signed onto yet. The promised wave of matches has been more of a trickle<\/a>. Plenty of firms, many of Chicago\u2019s homegrown giants among them, still haven\u2019t put the new numbers in writing. Everyone assumes they will\u2026 but so far, they haven\u2019t announced a thing.<\/p>\n

Which makes Milbank\u2019s timing pointed. It\u2019s arriving as the highest bidder in a town where the locals \u2014 Kirkland, Sidley, Mayer Brown, Winston & Strawn, Jenner \u2014 have so far stayed quiet on the new scale. A price-setting competitor recruiting on your home turf tends to concentrate the mind on comp.<\/p>\n

Leading the flag-planting is Nadav Klugman, a renewable-energy and project-finance partner Milbank poached from White & Case, where he co-headed the global project development and finance practice. He\u2019ll be based in the new Chicago office once it opens, joining the firm\u2019s Global Project, Energy & Infrastructure Finance Group. Chairman Scott Edelman was upfront that this is a talent play, calling Chicago \u201can important new market for the firm to attract first-level talent that will allow us to better serve our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the pressure just changed shape for Chicago\u2019s Biglaw stalwarts. It\u2019s one thing to quietly wait out a salary bump announced from New York. It\u2019s another when the firm that set the number opens down the street and starts hiring. Chicago firms, the clock that\u2019s been ticking all summer just got a lot louder.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milbank\u2019s banner year rolls on. The firm rewrote Biglaw\u2019s salary scale in June, stacked special summer bonuses on top, and waved its incoming class in early because business was too good to wait. The latest chapter in Milbank\u2019s 2026 is its arrival in Chicago. The firm announced Monday that it\u2019s opening an office in Chicago, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161367,"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-161378","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\/08\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-OD3NDU.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161378","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=161378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}