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I want to work as a summer associate for a big law firm in the DC area. What is the average salary for summer associates in big law firms? Is there a significant difference in pay between the more prestigious big law firms and the the more middle tier firms?

It should be the starting associate salary divided by 52. So firms on the Cravath scale tend to pay precisely $3,653.85/week. Some firms round up to $3700 or $3750. A couple (ex. K&E, Reed Smith) apparently pay slightly above market for unknown reasons - $3,958.50. Not sure about firms that pay below market since I didn’t apply to those. I imagine a place like Wachtel or W&C would pay more since their starting salary is higher but someone who works there should confirm.

TestAccount12345 wrote:It should be the starting associate salary divided by 52. So firms on the Cravath scale tend to pay precisely $3,653.85/week. Some firms round up to $3700 or $3750. A couple (ex. K&E, Reed Smith) apparently pay slightly above market for unknown reasons - $3,958.50. Not sure about firms that pay below market since I didn’t apply to those. I imagine a place like Wachtel or W&C would pay more since their starting salary is higher but someone who works there should confirm.

I understand Wachtell pays summers on the Cravath scale. Wachtell associates make (lots) more not because their base pay is higher, but because they receive ginormous bonuses (commensurate with a similarly ginormous number of hours worked).

I'm surprised to hear Reed Smith pays summers above Cravath. I understand their full-time associates make below the current Cravath scale.

In the end, I wouldn't base any decision on where to summer on SA pay. It's only 8-10 weeks in the grand scheme of things (or 12 at the maximum, though it's pretty rare to find 12-week gigs these days). Much more important to find a firm that's a good "fit," and that pays actual market. Most firms that claim to pay Cravath actually don't pay Cravath because they attach hours requirements to bonuses that many/most associates fail to meet.