On 2 June 2026, Sidley elected 52 new partners. That is up 79% from its December 2025 class of 29 and reportedly the first and only summer round the firm intends to run. Sidley is the eleventh elite firm to create a salaried partner role since Cravath broke the seal in November 2023. The list now includes Paul Weiss, WilmerHale, Cleary, Skadden, Schulte Roth, Debevoise, Arnold & Porter, Sullivan & Cromwell, Freshfields and Sidley. Around 85% of the Am Law 100 now operate two-tier partnerships. A&O Shearman is reportedly weighing the same move.
On 2 June 2026, Sidley announced 52 new partners, its largest recent class, up from 29 in December 2025 and 38 in 2024. Yvette Ostolaza, (right) chair of the firm’s management committee, called it an “extraordinary depth of talent.” The mechanism is the income partner tier Sidley introduced in March, and it is reportedly the first and only summer partnership round the firm intends to run. Read in isolation, the announcement is a partner promotion story.
The move may be the cleanest demonstration yet of what the salaried tier is designed for.
Which Big Law Firms have created a Nonequity Partner Tier since Cravath moved?
Eleven elite firms have introduced a salaried partner role since Cravath broke the seal in November 2023:
| Firm | Tier Created | 2025 Am Law Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Cravath, Swaine & Moore | November 2023 | 23 |
| Paul Weiss | March 2024 | 5 |
| WilmerHale | August 2024 | 18 |
| Cleary Gottlieb | October 2024 | 22 |
| Skadden | February 2025 | 3 |
| Schulte Roth & Zabel | March 2025 (pre-merger) | — |
| Debevoise & Plimpton | June 2025 | 24 |
| Arnold & Porter | December 2025 | 51 |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | January 2026 | 25 |
| Freshfields | February 2026 | 13 |
| Sidley Austin | March 2026 | 6 |
Around 85% of the Am Law 100 now operate two-tier partnerships, leaving only about 10 to 15 single-tier holdouts, including Wachtell Lipton, Ropes & Gray, Davis Polk and Covington. Bruce MacEwen, president of legal consultancy Adam Smith Esq, (pictured) called the trend “growing like crazy” and it appears that A&O Shearman is now reportedly weighing the same move.
What does the Sidley Data Mean?
The 79% spike from 29 to 52 is not an expansion of equity holders, but it is an expansion of the partnership label. The income tier separates headline partner count from equity ownership, which is what gives the firm flexibility on issues like retention, lateral economics and promoting the promotions – but at the end of the day the equity pool remains undisturbed.
The same situation explains why Freshfields paired its February tier launch with a “stretched” lockstep, and why PEP rankings keep climbing even as named partner counts expand.
The Effect for Senior Associates and the Lateral Market?
For senior associates the answer is difficult because equity partnership has become harder, longer and more remote, and the visible promotion path now runs through the income rung rather than directly to it.
Ropes & Gray’s October 2025 decision to recommit to single-tier, and Wachtell’s continued resistance, are now the outliers in this equiry reshuffle, and both made the case explicitly that the unified model is their differentiator.
For laterals, the income tier offer is becoming the default landing slot for senior associates and counsel-level hires, which means the difficult discussion is total compensation. The BigLaw Salary Scale tracks the running on this.
The Legal Pay Guide tracks what total comp actually looks like at the salaried tier.
The interesting 2026 questions are not who else moves. They are how big the income tier gets, how many years it adds to the climb, and when the lateral market starts pricing the gap honestly.
