Latest Legal News: First-Year Associates Paid $160,000

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First-Year Associates Making $160,000
This blog often writes about big law lawyers getting laid off, and while it's important to remember the economy is hurting highly skilled white collar labor -- it's not all about lost manufacturing jobs -- some perspective can be helpful. Above the Law has a memo from firm Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe detailing total compensation paid to associates at the firm as compared to their competitors. And in short, before getting laid off, big law lawyers were making bank. (When reading the numbers, consider that the most recent census data available show the average salary in Manhattan -- the place legal compensation is generally highest -- was $79,500. And that average is surely much higher than the median wage, a more relevant number to most workers, given the big law and Wall Street salaries on the high end.)