Williams & Connolly Salary Scale

[guesssst]

Could someone please give any insight re: the current Williams & Connolly salary scale? I know there were "rumors" that they raised salaries last November, but they refuse to confirm it to media outlets, and while I've received confirmation from at least three sources that salaries did go up by 10 or 20k, the new Vault profile still displays the old salary scale. What gives? And will salaries raise again before OCI now that NYC/DC has moved?

[Guesst]

Bump

[BearCat]

Frankly, I doubt any W&C associate would be willing to disclose the salary scale. They've all been tight-lipped about it this long.

[Johannes]

It’s pretty much always safe to assume tight lipped associates = above market comp. it’s an implicit understanding.

[guesssssst]

"My work is intellectually challenging and diverse in scope, I have talented and kind colleagues, and I'm happy with the significant level of responsibility I've been given. While the firm's below-market compensation was an issue over the last two years, the firm (finally) took some positive steps to remedy that in January 2018."

So strange that no one will spill the beans. I guess Johannes right and they're being paid above market. The real question is whether/how soon they'll move again--and whether their compensation is back below market again.

[SPJuniper]

Any updates on this?

[Jubo]

It’s pretty much always safe to assume tight lipped associates = above market comp. it’s an implicit understanding.

I’d actually assume the opposite. Most firms that do not disclose salary are below market and/or have salary compression. The firms that do pay above market usually make it known, at least via leaks to Above the Law. It’s no mystery that Wachtell associates make way above market.

The only reason to pay more is to recruit and keep top talent away from other firms, and it seems like it’d be hard to do that if nobody knows about your above market comp.

[Johannes]

Key word being tight lipped ASSOCIATES. Tight lipped firm black box would def be below market. Tight lipped associates are above market. No one knows how much wachtell is above market anymore. 2nd years there prolly making like 500k ATL hasn’t gotten an update since they were 100% bonused.

[Johannes]

A lot of these smaller firms that fucking grind want associates to buy into the culture. They don’t want the comp to be a distinguishing factor to an outsider/money whore. They want people committed to the team and don’t have a shortage of interest so they don’t have to set themselves apart from market re comp.

These firms are perfect examples of the unique “matching markets” that don’t follow normal supply/demand curves. Alan Roth won a Nobel prize for his work on this stuff and has a good on point analysis.

[Eun]

Key word being tight lipped ASSOCIATES. Tight lipped firm black box would def be below market. Tight lipped associates are above market. No one knows how much wachtell is above market anymore. 2nd years there prolly making like 500k ATL hasn’t gotten an update since they were 100% bonused.

I didnt know associates are the ones marketing potential recruiting for the firm.

[Yea All Right]

IMO it's the opposite; associates would stay quiet about their salaries if they're below-market since lower salaries are generally seen as less prestigious in biglaw.

[Johannes]

Except we know that’s wrong for our only 2 examples: Jones day and wachtell. Both black box. One above market player and one below market. One firm had 0 associates over 8 years blab to ATL; the other had like 100+ associates in 1 month blab.