LawFuel editors, April 2026
It’s April 2026, and the usual spring fever has hit r/biglaw, except this year the chatter isn’t about bonus season (that already came and went). It’s all about the next salary scale.
The thread “New 2026 Payscale — when???” exploded to 97+ upvotes in days.
Associates are refreshing their inboxes, DMing class-year group chats, and openly speculating whether the Cravath-aligned lockstep — which has held steady since late 2023 — is finally due for another bump.
Right now, the market standard is crystal clear. We published the 2025 bonus rates recently, but attention is turning to 2026 – how surprising?
First-year associates (Class of 2025) are on $225,000 base. The scale then steps up predictably: $235k (2nd year), $260k (3rd), $310k (4th), $365k (5th), $390k (6th), $420k (7th), and $435k for eighth-year associates. Add market bonuses and total compensation for seniors can push north of $575k.
But after years of double-digit jumps, many associates feel the escalator has slowed to a crawl.
One top comment captured the mood perfectly: “When’s the new 2026 payscale dropping? I feel like it’s almost time… base bump would be SO nice.”
The speculation is detailed and hopeful. A heavily discussed prediction floating around the thread lays out a full revised scale: 1st year $235k, 2nd $245k, 3rd $275k, 4th $325k, 5th $385k, 6th $410k, 7th $440k, and 8th $455k — potentially applied retroactively to January 1.
Not everyone is buying it. A blunt reply summed up the counter-view: “There will be no base compensation increases this year.” Others pointed out the obvious: “If anything in that chart changed for 2026, you’d know. Because there would be dancing (or crying) in the streets.”
Associates are watching Kirkland & Ellis smash records with $11.1 million average profits per equity (we have the story here) partner in 2025 (the first firm ever to crack the $11M club and the first to top $10 billion in revenue).
Many note the math doesn’t feel fair: partner profits have soared while associate base pay has been relatively flat in real terms once inflation is factored in.
Yet the tone isn’t pure doom and gloom. Several commenters on the forums and social media highlighted that firms are leaning harder into performance bonuses, retention incentives, and clerkship signing bonuses instead of across-the-board base increases.
One associate quipped that mid-levels (the 4th–6th year “sweet spot”) are still the hottest lateral market, meaning money is moving, just not always on the official scale.
What this means for your career right now
If you’re a BigLaw associate, the consensus from the subreddit trenches is clear: don’t count on a massive base raise announcement in the next few weeks, but stay alert. First-mover firms (Milbank, Simpson Thacher, or a surprise player) could still light the fuse. Lateral opportunities, practice-group strength, and billable-hour performance are where the real money is being made in 2026.
And if you’re a law student or junior? The Reddit hive mind’s advice is consistent: the Cravath scale is still the gold standard, but total compensation — not just base — is what separates the good offers from the great ones.
The 2026 salary conversation is far from over. As one associate put it in the thread, the silence from management so far is deafening and in BigLaw, silence usually means everyone is watching everyone else.
Stay tuned. The next memo could drop any day. And when it does, r/biglaw will be the first place to know we imagine – apart from LawFuel, obviously.
Have thoughts? Contact us at lawfuel@gmail.com
(Sources: r/biglaw threads April 2026, Cravath/Milbank scale confirmations, Am Law and Bloomberg Law PEP data.)
