About the Ranking

The firms below have the highest paid midlevel associates (3rd-5th years). Per hour that is. This year Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel garnered the top honor with an associate pay of $83.02/hour. Rounding out the Top 100 is Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz with an hourly rate of $56.77/hour, or 68% of the pay received at Kramer Levin. The median hourly rate for these Top 100 firms is $68.09/hour. How much the pay hike at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett will reorder this ranking remains to be seen.

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Methodology

The hourly rate is calculated by dividing compensation, salary plus bonus, by 50 weeks and dividing that number by the average number of hours worked. The salary information is as reported in 2006 and the bonuses are as reported in 2005.

Only firms for which the AveryIndex has both bonus and salary information were included. Notable firms such as Williams & Connolly, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Boies, Schiller & Flexner are not represented as salary or bonus information was unavailable. The data for the calculations is principally based on over 6,500 associate surveys (3rd-5th years) from 2005 and 2006. See The American Lawyer's 2006 Midlevel Associates Survey. Only firms with 10 or more respondents are represented.

The Highest Pay Per Hour for Associates

1-10 | 11-30 | 31-50 | 51-70 | 71-100

Rank	Firm	2006 Salary	2005 Bonus	Total	Hours Worked	$ per Hour
51	Davis Polk & Wardwell	$179,844	$33,455	$213,299	62.7	$68.04
52	Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw	$175,680	$22,640	$198,320	58.3	$68.03
53	Bingham McCutchen	$174,063	$20,119	$194,182	57.1	$68.01
54	Kelley Drye & Warren	$176,923	$13,952	$190,875	56.4	$67.69
55	Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker	$170,847	$21,843	$192,690	57.1	$67.49
56	Loeb & Loeb	$165,000	$15,000	$180,000	53.4	$67.42
57	Goodwin Procter	$178,276	$14,536	$192,812	57.3	$67.30
58	Andrews Kurth	$158,636	$16,500	$175,136	52.1	$67.23
59	Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton	$173,269	$8,100	$181,369	54	$67.17
60	McDermott, Will & Emery	$175,352	$17,176	$192,528	57.8	$66.62
61	Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati	$172,128	$20,964	$193,092	58	$66.58
62	Chapman and Cutler	$155,667	$12,432	$168,099	50.5	$66.57
63	Baker Botts	$163,769	$14,929	$178,698	53.7	$66.55
64	Kenyon & Kenyon	$168,462	$21,023	$189,485	57.4	$66.02
65	Cravath, Swaine & Moore	$181,316	$35,439	$216,755	65.7	$65.98
65	Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman	$171,333	$13,754	$185,087	56.1	$65.98
67	Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld	$164,519	$20,255	$184,774	56.2	$65.76
68	Winston & Strawn	$166,000	$22,232	$188,232	57.4	$65.59
69	Jenner & Block	$175,132	$15,170	$190,302	58.2	$65.40
70	Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky	$172,727	$13,150	$185,877	57.4	$64.77