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...