Locke Liddell & Sapp, which has offices in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., raised its base salary scale for Texas associates to the level announced last week by Baker Botts.
The new, higher base salary scale at Locke Liddell is retroactive to March 1 and applies to associates in all five of the firm's offices, says Mike Rutledge, the firm's Houston-based administrative partner. The firm's management committee, which approved the new base salary levels on Tuesday, is still working on determining the bonuses that go with the new base salaries, Rutledge says.
The 131 associates at 361-lawyer Locke Liddell received news of the raises on Wednesday.
The new annual base salary for a first-year associate at Locke Liddell is $140,000, Rutledge says. A second-year associate will earn a $145,000 base. The base salary is $150,000 for a third-year associate; $160,000 for a fourth-year associate; $170,000 for a fifth-year associate; $180,000 for a sixth-year associate; $185,000 for a seventh-year associate; and $190,000 for an eighth-year associate, he says.
While Locke Liddell is still ironing out its associate bonus structure, Baker Botts' new scale calls for maximum bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, depending on how long an associate has been with the firm.
Rutledge says firms have to be competitive in salary to vie for the best associates.
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