Bloomberg Law
Sept. 15, 2016, 2:51 PM UTC

Western Digital Lawyer Says Firms Risk Losing Work Over Associate Salaries

Blake Edwards

Elevated first-year associate salaries seem to be the new normal at top law firms, but Michael Ray, Chief Legal Officer of Western Digital Corporation, thinks the new compensation schemes are “largely unsustainable.”

“First-year lawyers, junior lawyers — when they’re just out of law school, there is a limit, I think, to how much value they can provide, because they are learning. Everybody understands that,” Ray said.

The question, he said, is whether companies should pay for it. Asked whether top firms run the risk of losing business to lower-tier firms who can afford to charge lower rates, Ray said, “Absolutely.”

“If ...

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