Lawyer Pay

These BigLaw firms had the highest spreads in partner compensation

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For the first time this year, the American Lawyer has asked the nation’s 200 largest law firms to supply figures on the spread in compensation between their top-paid and lowest-paid partners.

The publication received responses from 111 law firms, the American Lawyer reports. For law firms in the top 100, the average spread for partner compensation was 10.5, meaning top-paid partners in this group received an average 10.5 times the compensation of the lowest-paid partner. The median was 9.3.

For law firms in the second-hundred tier, the average spread was 10.3 and the median was 10.1.

The American Lawyer reveals the firms with the highest compensation spreads in a separate chart. These firms had the highest spreads:

1) Lowenstein Sandler, and Vedder Price (a tie), with a compensation spread of 24

2) Fish & Richardson, with a spread of 23.79

3) Perkins Coie, with a spread of 23

4) Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, with a spread of 20.13

5) Chapman and Cutler, and Moore & Van Allen (a tie), with a spread of 20

6) Loeb & Loeb, with a spread of 19.83

7) Stevens & Lee, with a spread of 19.40

8) SNR Denton, with a spread of 19

9) Barnes & Thornburg, and Patton Boggs (a tie), with a spread of 18

10) Shutts & Bowen, with a spread of 17.70

The five firms with the lowest spreads are Dinsmore (2.20); Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto (3.23); Jenner & Block (3.60); Baker Donelson (3.75), and Kenyon & Kenyon (4.23).

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