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Texas Lawyer:

A few days after Vinson & Elkins announced a new associate salary scale that boosted the first-year starting salary to $160,000 in Texas, the managing shareholder at Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin met with the firm's Texas associates to talk money.

Wayne Risoli says he told the associates the firm will not match V&E's salary scale, but it will increase associate base salaries in 2007 and will put more money into the pool used to pay year-end bonuses.

Risoli says it was important to meet with associates quickly to reassure them the firm is aware of the market move in Texas and considering options. Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, a 101-lawyer Houston-based firm, pays first-years a $125,000 base salary, he says. Associate bonuses in 2006 ranged from $10,000 to $73,000, and the range will go higher this year, he adds.

Risoli says he was encouraged by what the associates said at meetings held on July 25 and 26: "They've all given us very encouraging comments about our firm's culture and basically said not to worry about the salary differences, because the firm's culture is so good, and I was very comforted by that. We also have a very strong bonus program that will make up much of the difference."

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Recruiters

The jump in associate salary scales at some firms hasn't yet caused much of an impact in the associate lateral market, four Texas-based recruiters say.

Firms that will not move to the new market rate can offer other concrete benefits to associates, such as a share of the profits, a shorter partnership track, longer vacation time, lower billable-hour requirements, good mentoring and training, and meaningful part-time work schedules, she says.

But Elaine Williams of MS Legal Search, with offices in Houston and Dallas, says some big-firm associates have temporarily put their job searches on hold. "That is interesting, because their reasons for leaving were not motivated by money, but the additional money is causing them to postpone," Williams says. "They are a little confused."

Williams also expects in-house legal departments to have more difficulty recruiting associates out of big firms.

"These companies have been hiring over the last year at a higher level, and the salaries were already an issue for them. I can't tell yet what effect this is going to have, but these are usually the prime jobs that associates leaving firms are interested in," she says.

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