Lawyers: Mighty Raise

LAWYERS Mighty Raise For decades, the fate of young lawyers in big law firms was right out of Dickens—a harrowing upward creep from Cratchit-like work weeks of 60 hours, to the office politics of survival, to the great expectations (years hence) of a lucrative partnership. While enduring those early hard times, the country’s brightest law graduates dutifully toiled for relatively little. In 1963, the going rate for new associates at top Manhattan firms was only $7,200 a year—and much less in many other cities. But no more. Law students are abuzz with the news that the new rate at big New York law firms is $15,000 to start.

The ceiling was blown off by the prestigious firm of Cravath, Swaine and Moore, which announced that it is increasing its starting salaries from $10,500 to $15,000 immediately. As other New York firms rapidly followed suit last week, it seemed likely that almost no large firm anywhere in the country could afford to lag far behind. One of Cravath’s partners, Thomas Barr, explained that “the decision was not made for competitive reasons. We did it because we thought it was the right thing and the fair thing” in the light of onerously escalating living costs in New York.

There was more to it than that. Compounding a general shortage of fledgling lawyers, caused partly by the draft, is the fact that more and more top law graduates are shunning regular practice. Instead, they are working for Government agencies, going into teaching or using their valuable talents in various civil libertarian causes. For many, the new lure of the law is a career devoted to tackling the country’s social problems, not protecting private clients. Last year only one-quarter of the editors of the Harvard Law Review went directly into private practice; only 10% plan to do so this year. Whether the upped salaries will change many minds remains to be seen. Says one third-year man who still plans to become a law professor: “I am just not going to be bought at this price. For me, it’s no sale.”

As for those students who are continuing to aim at private practice, there is amazed delight. In the words of a makeshift poster that quickly appeared on one Harvard bulletin board: THE

REASON THEY CALL IT THE “GOING

RATE” IS THAT IF THE OTHER FIRMS DON’T MEET IT, WE’LL ALL BE GOING TO CRAVATH.