Biglaw

McGuireWoods Will Do What It Wants... And It Doesn't WANT To Give Raises

The firm will give out summer bonuses, though.

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On Thursday, McGuireWoods associates were invited on a call with firm management. That should have been enough of a tip-off that the firm would not be giving out raises. When you are going to follow the market, you want to do it in writing. When you are going to cheap out your employees, you tell them over the phone.

On the call, associates were informed that McGuireWoods prefers to look at associate compensation in the first quarter, so they will look at it then. For now, the old salary structure remains in place. One tipster described the message from management like this:

“What works for us is to take up compensation in the first quarter, we look at it in ordinary course at the beginning of the year. Other firms can do what they want — we’re going to do what we want.”

It’s funny to me that when firm leadership gets chesty about bucking a trend, it’s always about being cheap to their employees. Nobody ever says, “Other firms can do what they want, we’re going to do what we want. And we want to buy everybody a new car.”

All is not bad for MW associates. The firm is throwing out some summer bonuses. From our tipsters:

We are going to give everyone across the board a “modest, mid-year bonus” from the partners just as a way to say thank you. A small bump in July paycheck.

a. Large-city markets (Dallas, LA, some of the other big city markets):

i. Senior associates: $7500
ii. Midlevel associates: $5000
iii. Junior associates: $2500

b. Other markets

i. Senior associates: $5000
ii. Midlevel associates: $3000
iii. Junior associates: $2000

Hey, they wanted to do that, right?

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Whatever, the money is probably just enough to keep McGuireWoods out of the deadly Greenberg Traurig / Reed Smith pit of recruitment despair.

It’s bad, but it could be worse. That summer bonus is not nothing. It can buy you a really nice suit for the lateral hire interviews you’ll be taking this winter.

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) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Raises Salaries”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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