Desmarais LLP has raised associate base salaries effective July 1, pushing compensation above the new Milbank scale that has dominated Biglaw salary conversations this year.
The elite IP litigation boutique informed associates and summer associates of the increases, with the most significant benefits landing for attorneys in their first three years of practice.
The new structure is particularly generous to junior talent, running counter to a broader industry trend that tends to favour more senior associates when salary bumps are distributed.
Desmarais has a long history of setting compensation benchmarks, having made the salary push to $180,000 for first-year New York associates a reality years ahead of the wider legal market around 2012.
Milbank, the firm widely credited with doing more than any other to drive Biglaw salaries upward, announced raises ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 depending on class year, effective July 1, 2026.
Summer associates were also included in the Milbank scale announcement, which fired the starting gun on what has quickly become an intense 2026 compensation race across the legal industry.
Litigation boutiques have dominated the salary scorecard so far, with firms including Hueston Hennigan, Quinn Emanuel, Susman Godfrey, Elsberg Baker and Maruri, and Wilkinson Stekloff all moving to match or exceed the new scale.
Susman Godfrey went furthest, raising associate salaries to as much as $450,000, with first-year associates earning $240,000, creating what observers describe as a second compensation track for firms competing for top talent.
Holwell Shuster and Goldberg followed Susman’s lead by also going above the Milbank rate, while Axinn, Veltrop and Harkrider had already been sitting above market after raising its first-year base to $250,000 in 2025.
That $250,000 figure sits $15,000 above the new Milbank floor of $235,000, meaning Axinn had effectively front-run the entire 2026 salary conversation without intending to start one.
Desmarais carries an additional structural advantage in the compensation discussion because the firm does not bill clients by the hour, instead charging by litigation stage and result.
That model means associates at Desmarais face no hourly billing targets, removing one of the more psychologically demanding features of traditional Biglaw practice.
A fifth-year associate at a Milbank-scale firm earning a comparable salary still faces the pressure of chasing billable hour requirements that Desmarais associates simply do not deal with.
Traditional Biglaw firms, meanwhile, have been slower to respond, with the working theory being that the lockstep model depends on consensus, and no firm wants to move before Cravath and then be forced to recalibrate.
The Am Law 100 results reflected a strong 2025 for the industry, meaning the hesitation is not driven by financial constraints but by the structural caution that defines how large full-service firms approach compensation decisions.