Associate Pay Unlikely to Rise in 2009.

Nearly a year ago, DC's Williams & Connolly pushed first-year associate salaries to $180,000, but according to top partners, associate pay is going to hold steady for a while as firms deal with the difficult economy. Who knows how long this will hold, but some feel that it may not be for too long because there is a greater demand than supply for top young lawyers.

The increase in associate pay added $1 billion to firm overhead in 2007, according to The American Lawyer. Still, the magazine reports, that was less than 1 percent of the overall gross of the Am Law 200. Source: Legal Times