Winstead Associates Must Earn High Pay

A Dallas-based law firm has decided it will remain a holdout in the associate salary wars.

Winstead says it will not meet starting pay levels of $160,000 a year for new associates, Texas Lawyer reports. Instead the firm will continue to pay $135,000, but will award bonuses of up to $25,000. Previously, new associates were eligible only for $5,000 bonuses.

"We are not going to act reflexively in a lock-step action without regard to actual contributions an individual associate makes," firm chairman Denis Braham told the legal newspaper.