BigLaw Associate Pay Should Return to 1998 Levels According to Altman Weil Expert

Altman Weil legal consultant James Cotterman thinks associate pay levels should be set back to 1998 levels. Associate pay at large law firms has dropped from $160,000 to $145,000, but that was only "about half of what was needed," Cotterman said. "They probably should have set pay back a decade, to 1998. That's what I was expecting ... this story may not be over yet." Quoted in Law.com's Experts: Lower Associate Pay Is Here to Stay. See also Cotterman's blog post, Changing the Rules on Associate Compensation.

Now about those law school tuition debts... [JH]