The overall median first-year base associate salary as of Jan. 1 saw over a 21% increase from 2021, according to the National Association for Law Placement’s 2023 Associate Salary Survey report. The median salary was $200,000 showing about a $35,000 increase.
Law offices in firms of more than 250 lawyers accounted for about 81% of the 694 survey responses, up from 78% in 2021, according to a news release.
“The past two years saw a red-hot recruiting market where associates scored multiple pay raises and commanded unprecedented leverage as firms desperately tried to add and retain lawyers,” said Nikia Gray, NALP’s Executive Director, in the release. “Although the market has since turned 180 degrees, the added pressure of the so-called talent wars at the time appears to have caused these pay increases to cascade throughout the market at an accelerated pace.”
Gray said that normally it takes the highly publicized raises at the largest firms two or more years to move through the market but the results of the survey show that salaries increased across the industry, regardless of firm size or location.
The survey results show that in terms of percentage growth, salaries were up the most in firms of 100 or fewer lawyers. In these specific firms, the median first-year salary grew from $120,000 in the 2021 survey to $155,000 in 2023 (+29.2%).
Firms of 501-700 lawyers saw the largest increase, with the median first-year salary growing from $155,000 in 2021 to $200,000 in 2023 (+$45,000), according to NALP. In 2023, firms with more than 1,000 attorneys had a median first-year salary of $215,000. NALP suggests that the salary increases at large firms, along with the rising cost of living, may have put pressure on smaller firms to raise their wages as well.
“It is important to note that because the respondent pool for the survey varies from year to year, use of the Associate Salary Survey data across different years to discern trends should be done with caution, as these analyses do not contain salary scales for a set group of firms,” stated the release. “Salary adjustments on the part of some large firms in recent years, law firm acquisitions and mergers which can result in the size of a law firm changing and fluctuations in the distribution of respondents play a role in determining changes in median salaries within the report.”
The full 2023 Associate Salary Survey report can be accessed on NALP’s website.
