![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-17-at-5.57.10-PM-1024x567.png\" "\\"\\"")
Midlevel and senior associates are, as is the firm\u2019s tradition, off the compensation grid entirely. That tradition goes back to the Locke Lord merger, when Troutman announced a comp model<\/a> that paid market for first- and second-years and then sorted everyone senior to that onto a two-tier \u201cstandard\u201d or \u201cincreased\u201d scale. As per the firm\u2019s announcement, only older associates on that higher tier will make the Milbank scale.<\/p>\n So credit where it\u2019s due: the grid grew. It used to run out after year two, and now it runs through year four. Two additional class years of knowing what your paycheck will say is not nothing.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the date. Milbank\u2019s raises landed this summer. Troutman\u2019s land January 1, which leaves associates doing the back half of 2026 at last year\u2019s numbers. Troutman is not the first firm this cycle to match now and pay later<\/a>, and it won\u2019t be the last, but the firms picking that option aren\u2019t really<\/em> paying their associates top dollar.<\/p>\n Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important salary updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (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 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 salary announcement that we publish. Thanks for all of your help!<\/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 The post Troutman Pepper Locke Will Pay Associates Market Compensation, Well, Some Of Them<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a match! With an asterisk\u2026 or two.<\/p>\n Troutman Pepper Locke is the latest firm to get on board with the salary scale Milbank set back in June<\/a>, telling associates it will pay market \u2014 effective January 1, 2027. The firm is matching lockstep for associates in their first through fourth years, which puts those classes on a scale that starts at $235,000, as per the below.<\/p>\n Midlevel and senior associates are, as is the firm\u2019s tradition, off the compensation grid entirely. That tradition goes back to the Locke Lord merger, when Troutman announced a comp model<\/a> that paid market for first- and second-years and then sorted everyone senior to that onto a two-tier \u201cstandard\u201d or \u201cincreased\u201d scale. As per the firm\u2019s announcement, only older associates on that higher tier will make the Milbank scale.<\/p>\n So credit where it\u2019s due: the grid grew. It used to run out after year two, and now it runs through year four. Two additional class years of knowing what your paycheck will say is not nothing.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the date. Milbank\u2019s raises landed this summer. Troutman\u2019s land January 1, which leaves associates doing the back half of 2026 at last year\u2019s numbers. Troutman is not the first firm this cycle to match now and pay later<\/a>, and it won\u2019t be the last, but the firms picking that option aren\u2019t really<\/em> paying their associates top dollar.<\/p>\n Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important salary updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (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 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 salary announcement that we publish. Thanks for all of your help!<\/p>\n It\u2019s a match! With an asterisk\u2026 or two. Troutman Pepper Locke is the latest firm to get on board with the salary scale Milbank set back in June, telling associates it will pay market \u2014 effective January 1, 2027. The firm is matching lockstep for associates in their first through fourth years, which puts those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163128","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=163128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nKathryn 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":"