Salary · Philadelphia associate economics
Dechert Salary 2026: the cells a general counsel can underwrite
As of 11 September 2026, a general counsel can underwrite 18 Dechert-named pay cells and cannot underwrite a 2026 U.S. class-year base grid. The dated count is the table. The rest is not public.
Eighteen cells are public. Eight 2026 bases are not.
As of 11 September 2026, 18 Dechert salary cells are public and Dechert-named. Sartori maps about 7,500 lawyers in Philadelphia. A 2026 U.S. class-year base grid that is Dechert-named is 0 of 8.
Public, Dechert-named commercial cells as of 11 September 2026: 14 U.S. 2025 bonus amounts, one Am Law PEP average, three London trainee and NQ bases. ATL scorecard ↗
Four facts from one dated count. The June 2026 market raise is a different table. The bonus grid a general counsel can actually underwrite is below.
- $1.61B
- 2025 gross revenue at this firm, up 6.6 percent, published 23 March 2026.
- Law.com / American Lawyer, 23 March 2026
- $828.4M
- 2025 net income, described as over 12 percent, in the same 23 March 2026 teaser.
- Law.com / American Lawyer, 23 March 2026
- −11.9%
- Change in the size of the equity partnership on 2025 results — retirements, reclassifications, laterals.
- Law.com / American Lawyer, 23 March 2026
- ~$6.2M
- 2025 profits per equity partner — an Am Law average, not a partner salary.
- Law.com / American Lawyer, 23 March 2026
The Dechert salary cells a general counsel can underwrite
The only U.S. cash grid that is Dechert-named in the 2026 record is a 2025 bonus memo. It is fourteen cells, an hours gate, and two extraordinary overlays — not a class-year base.
Above the Law reprinted Dechert’s U.S. associate memo on 19 November 2025. Seven class-year year-end amounts plus seven specials run from $20,000 / $6,000 for the class of 2024 through $115,000 / $25,000 for 2018 and earlier, with payout written as before the end of January 2026. Those fourteen cells measure cash bonus for U.S. associates who clear the firm’s hours test. They are not base salary, and they are not 2026 bonuses. The class-by-class grid sits in the table below.
The Global Legal Post, on 25 November 2025, named Dechert among firms matching Cravath’s 2025 year-end and special scale and reprinted the extraordinary-hours language. Cravath’s own PDF memorandum, dated 18 November 2025 and hosted by Above the Law, is the market-bonus setter this firm matched the next day. That PDF also prints Cravath’s 2026 bases, effective 1 January 2026, from the class of 2025 at $225,000 through the class of 2019 at $420,000. Those bases are Cravath’s. They are not Dechert’s. The sibling page on the 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale owns the market ladder; this page does not restate it as a Dechert column.
| Class year | Seniority | Year-end bonus | Special bonus | Bonus stack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2024 | 1st year | $20,000 | $6,000 | $26,000 |
| Class of 2023 | 2nd year | $30,000 | $10,000 | $40,000 |
| Class of 2022 | 3rd year | $57,500 | $15,000 | $72,500 |
| Class of 2021 | 4th year | $75,000 | $20,000 | $95,000 |
| Class of 2020 | 5th year | $90,000 | $25,000 | $115,000 |
| Class of 2019 | 6th year | $105,000 | $25,000 | $130,000 |
| Class of 2018+ | 7th year & senior | $115,000 | $25,000 | $140,000 |
Bonus-stack figures are arithmetic on the memo’s published lines, not a separate survey. Source: Above the Law, 19 November 2025.
Above the Law’s 2025 bonus scorecard, in a table that includes Dechert’s 19 November 2025 match, records the eligibility floor as 1,950 hours — client billable, pro bono, firm-as-client, and a maximum of 50 community hours — with payout by or before the end of January 2026. The same memo, as quoted on Above the Law, states that lawyers who recorded 2,200 “extraordinary bonus hours” are eligible for an additional 30 percent above the year-end bonus amount, and that 2,400 hours pays an additional 40 percent, in addition to the amounts set forth above. For a class of 2018 and earlier, that overlay is arithmetic on a $115,000 year-end cell: 30 percent is $34,500 and 40 percent is $46,000, on top of the $25,000 special. Those derived overlays are not a guaranteed payout. They are the productivity test a general counsel has to assume when matching all-in cash from this memo.
The Global Legal Post piece of 25 November 2025 also cited Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group: top-50 grossing firms grew revenue 12.4 percent in the first three quarters of 2025 versus year-prior, with a 10 percent increase in billing rates as the primary contributor, plus increased demand and productivity. That is bank research on 2025 bonus levels, not a Dechert P&L line. It explains why year-end amounts held at the $115,000 cap that has sat on the market since 2021, with specials stacked on top. It does not fill a 2026 Dechert base cell.
A 2026 U.S. class-year base that is Dechert-named is not in the record.
Treat a general counsel underwriting grid as twenty-six commercial cells. Eighteen are public and Dechert-named as of 11 September 2026. The eight 2026 U.S. bases are the hole the market keeps filling with someone else's memo.
Printed 2025 bonusUnpublished partner salary
- Bonus memo Class-year cash, an hours gate, two extraordinary overlays. Dated November 2025. Paid by January 2026. Public.
- 2026 U.S. base Eight class-year cells a company wants on the offer. Not in the raise scorecard. Not in a Dechert-named primary.
- Partner draw Profit share, not salary. The public cell is an Am Law average. Individual, nonequity and counsel dollars stay inside the firm.
| Cell | Grid size | Public and Dechert-named, 11 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. class-year base, 2026 | 8 | 0 public; Dechert not on the raise scorecard through 31 August 2026 |
| U.S. year-end bonus, 2025 cycle | 7 | Public; 19 November 2025 memo |
| U.S. special bonus, 2025 cycle | 7 | Public; same memo |
| U.S. year-end bonus, 2026 cycle | 7 | 0 public; bonus season for calendar 2026 had not opened |
| Firm-average PEP, 2025 results | 1 | Public as an Am Law average, 23 March 2026; not a partner salary |
| London trainee and NQ bases | 3 | Public on Legal Cheek 2026; no published PQE 1–8 ladder |
| Individual equity-partner draw | — | Not public |
| Nonequity-partner and counsel bands | — | Not public |
Counted from the sources in this article, not estimated from off-memo pay. Market (not Dechert-named) 2026 bases live on the 2026 market associate scale.
Milbank announced a $10,000 to $20,000 class-year raise on 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026, as Above the Law recorded the same day. Bloomberg Law, in a 17 June 2026 commentary, stated that the updated scale starts at $235,000 for first-years and tops out at $455,000 for eighth-years, and that two weeks later it had been adopted by more than a dozen firms. Above the Law’s live summer-2026 raise scorecard, with a 5 June 2026 byline and a table through 31 August 2026, still does not list Dechert among the named matchers. A general counsel cannot treat the $235,000–$455,000 ladder as a Dechert 2026 cell.
The last Dechert-named U.S. first-year base cell in a primary is $225,000, reported 30 November 2023 by the Philadelphia Business Journal: Dechert as the first Philadelphia firm to that floor. A companion Legal Intelligencer piece of 29 November 2023 is cited for a full class-year grid; two access attempts timed out or were paywalled, so this page does not reprint an eight-cell 2023 Dechert base table from search snippets. The employer-hosted 2022 NALP Snapshot still linked from the 2026 careers page prints 2022 compensation for entry-level lawyers at $215,000 a year and summer 1L and 2L pay at $4,135 a week. Those are 2022 recruiting-year figures, not 2026.
NALP’s 2025 Associate Salary Survey, as of 1 January 2025 and published in the June 2025 Bulletin, put the overall median first-year base at $200,000 and the median in firms of 701 or more lawyers at $215,000. $225,000 was the most frequently reported first-year figure, in 32.0 percent of offices overall and 44.7 percent of 701-plus offices. Cities where at least half of reporting offices were at $225,000 included Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and the Washington DC area. Philadelphia is not in that “at least half” list. The last Dechert-named first-year cell sat at the national mode; the city around it did not. The same survey put median weekly 2L summer pay at $3,850 across all firms and $4,100 at 701-plus firms. Dechert’s own 2022 NALP Snapshot still prints $4,135 a week. That 2022 weekly cell is above the 2025 survey medians; it is not a 2026 stipend, and the employer summer page accessed in 2026 does not replace it.
New York Labor Law section 194-b, effective 17 September 2023, requires employers with four or more employees to print a good-faith min/max pay range on advertised jobs, promotions or transfers performed at least in part in New York, or reporting to a New York supervisor or office, including remote, as the New York State Department of Labor fact sheet P687 (09/23) sets out. Open-ended “$20+” bands are banned. A New York associate posting should show a range. That posting range is not a class-year lockstep memo, and it does not fill the eight missing 2026 Dechert base cells.
A 2026 Dechert U.S. base is not a public cell.
The lawyer who earns the figure sits inside the firm. The buyer who matches it does not.
U.S. associates, counsel and two-tier partners earn the cash on an Am Law platform. London and Dublin trainees qualify onto the same funds book. The general counsel who matches it sits at the institutions that already buy the work.
NALP overall first-year median
NALP 2025 Associate Salary Survey, as of 1 January 2025, published June 2025.
NALP Bulletin+, June 2025 ↗The 2026 figure is earned on a law-firm seat, not in a corporate legal department.
- U.S. intake is a summer class. Firm news dated 13 May 2026 welcomed a 2026 class of 81 U.S. summer associates. The careers page still prints 80 or more summers, a 10-week program and 9 participating offices. No 2026 weekly stipend sits on that employer page.
- London is a qualification-year ladder. Legal Cheek’s 2026 firm page prints first-year trainee £55,000, second-year trainee £61,000 and newly qualified £165,000, with about 10 training contracts, 19 offices and 8 countries. The employer FAQ for the current cycle states 8 to 10 contracts, vacation-scheme-only entry, SQE 1 and 2, vacation pay of £550 a week, a £20,000-a-year maintenance grant if the offer is accepted before the course starts, a winter scheme 7 to 18 December 2026 and a spring scheme 30 March to 9 April 2027, and a pro bono commitment of at least 25 hours a year. Foreign-qualified lawyers apply as associates, not trainees.
- Dublin is a funds domicile, not a second NQ table. The Dublin office opened in 2010 as a transatlantic funds practice. It takes 2 to 3 trainees a year, pays PPC fees, and sends every Dublin trainee through a London seat. Foreign-qualified lawyers apply as associates, not trainees.
The general counsel who matches this cash already buys the work, and later hires the people who staffed it.
- Funds and finance are the scaled desks. The financial-services page claims nearly 200 lawyers across 13 of 16 locations. The corporate page claims 200 or more lawyers advising sponsors, regulated investment companies and banks. Those are law-firm headcounts a company is buying, not in-house seats.
- In-house is a declared exit, not the employing seat. The experienced-lawyers page names resources for associates aiming to go in-house. Role titles a chief legal officer will recognize on that path, names stripped: deputy GC or head of asset-management legal at a large U.S. retail asset manager; GC of a private-credit sponsor; assistant GC to a bulge-bracket registered-fund complex.
- Public-body feeders run the other way too. A 24 June 2025 firm notice put a Washington financial-services partner on the books from the SEC Division of Investment Management. The 23 January 2026 expansion added another Washington financial-services partner previously with the SEC, for BDCs, closed-end funds, permanent capital and private credit. Those are partner-level regulatory seats. Associate leverage follows.
The last employer-filed U.S. mix is still the 2022 NALP Snapshot the 2026 careers page links: Corporate & Securities 46 partners / 85 associates; Finance & Real Estate 29 / 79; Financial Services 35 partners / 3 counsel / 65 associates; Trials, Investigations and Securities 39 / 55. Two or more partner tiers: yes. Junior rotation between departments: no. That is 2022 staffing, not a 2026 census. Overlay the 23 January 2026 notice — more than 20 lateral partners, a U.S. complex-litigation practice, a Chambers Band 1 accounting-defense practice, new offices in Chicago and Dallas, Houston opening shortly — and the 2026 associate class is being asked to leverage a wider litigation and M&A footprint, not a frozen 2022 pyramid.
Office contacts for experienced lawyers and the U.S. summer list Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York and Philadelphia. That is the U.S. associate seat map a general counsel underwriting the scale should assume, including three Texas and Illinois offices announced or opening in 2026. Chambers Global 2026 still lists Hong Kong alongside London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Paris, Brussels, Munich, Singapore and Dubai DIFC. Use that list for where the desk sits. It is not a published pay cell for those cities.
The funds book a chief legal officer is actually buying is narrower than the headcount band. Dechert’s investment-funds page, read with the 2026 careers material, claims sponsors and principals of over 700 private funds, over 60 mutual-fund groups with client assets exceeding $5.5 trillion, and 30-plus ETF lawyers covering more than 20 ETF sponsors. The private-funds page adds “over 42 of the PDI top 50” private-debt managers in some capacity, and notes that most senior members of the team have spent time in-house with private-fund managers. The 2022 NALP Snapshot the firm still hosts wrote that clients included 40 of the Fortune 100 companies, more than 200 private equity and investment firms, 24 of the top 25 global asset-management firms, and 41 of the top 50 global private-debt firms as identified by PDI. Treat that mix as 2022 firm-authored franchise, still the last NALP form linked from the 2026 careers page, not a 2026 census.
The 2022 Snapshot also printed U.S. lawyer counts by title: 232 partners or members, 381 associates, 46 counsel, and 47 non-traditional or staff, summing to 706 U.S. lawyers on that form, against an organization size of 900. Those title lines are the last employer-filed U.S. pyramid a general counsel can read without guessing. They are not a 2026 Am Law lawyer count. A company matching a year-5 funds associate is matching that pyramid’s financial-services and corporate rows, not the global “nearly 1,000” marketing line.
Dechert partner salary is not a public cell. PEP is an average.
A partner paycheck at this firm is profit share. What is public is 2025 gross revenue, net income, an equity-partnership change, and an Am Law profits-per-equity-partner average — plus London gender-pay-gap percentages, which still do not print a draw.
The 23 March 2026 Law.com teaser that printed the P&L cells above is also the source for profits per equity partner that approached $6.2 million, up 27.3 percent, after retirements, reclassifications and laterals. The same piece states that the firm continues to focus on private equity, private credit and other finance-related practices. Legal Business, the same day, rounds revenue to $1.6 billion and PEP to $6.1 million, up 27 percent. Where the two diverge, this page uses the Law.com figures. No individual partner draw, nonequity salary or counsel band is in either piece. 2026 Am Law lawyer-count, revenue-per-lawyer and exact equity-partner headcount line items were not in the public teaser and are omitted.
Legal Cheek’s 2026 firm page prints profit per equity partner as £4,640,000, its sterling conversion of the about-$6.2 million PEP figure. That is a conversion of the same 2025-year average, not a London partner salary. The UK Gender Pay Gap Report 2025, filed under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, is explicit: partners do not receive a salary and instead receive a share of profit. 59.22 percent of women and 47.10 percent of men received a bonus. 46 percent of the firm’s global partner promotions in 2025 were awarded to women. The gap percentages in the chart below are statutory London disclosure. They are not a compensation scale a chief legal officer can underwrite.
Headcount is a band, not a 2026 census. The firm-authored Chambers Global 2026 profile writes “nearly 1,000 lawyers” across the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Legal Cheek 2026 prints 19 offices and 8 countries. Those marketing lines are not reconciled here with the 2022 U.S. title counts above, and they are not a 2026 Am Law lawyer row. Anyone selling the $6.2 million PEP cell as a partner salary is counting on the reader not opening the Am Law methodology, which this page’s companion on partner pay at the Am Law top 50 walks through.
Demand that pays this table is running on two clocks at once.
U.S. funds work in 2026 is not a vacated quarterly-statement build. European funds work is an AIFMD II go-live. Cyclically, Preqin's U.S. buyout series is the matter flow that funded the 2025 bonus memo.
A U.S. rule taken awayAn EU rule that went live
- Vacatur The Fifth Circuit set aside the SEC private-fund adviser package in June 2024. Staff secondaries, exams and BDCs, not a dead quarterly-statement build.
- Transposition AIFMD II hit its 16 April 2026 deadline. London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Munich and Paris funds seats are documentation and marketing work now, with RTS still to bite.
- Cycle U.S. buyout deals, exits and continuation vehicles are the hours that paid the 2025 bonus memo. They are not a first-year hiring surge on their own.
In National Association of Private Fund Managers v. SEC, No. 23-60471, a unanimous Fifth Circuit panel on 5 June 2024 vacated “Private Fund Advisers; Documentation of Registered Investment Adviser Compliance Reviews,” 88 Fed. Reg. 63206, adopted 23 August 2023 as IA-6383. The holding: the Commission exceeded statutory authority; no part of it can stand. The opinion recites the industry-size figures used in the adopting release: private funds from 32,717 to 100,947 and value from $9.8 trillion in 2012 to $26.6 trillion in 2022. Reuters, the same day, recorded that the rule had required quarterly fee and performance reports, annual audits, and limits on preferential treatment. Do not staff a 2026 associate class against a now-dead quarterly-statement, restricted-activities or adviser-led-secondaries rule build. Keep mid-level financial-services regulatory, exams and negotiated secondaries. Those deals did not need the vacated rule.
Directive (EU) 2024/927 of 13 March 2024, OJ L 2024/927 of 26 March 2024, amends AIFMD 2011/61/EU and UCITS 2009/65/EC on delegation, liquidity risk management, supervisory reporting, depositary and custody, and loan origination. Dechert OnPoint, 18 October 2024, dated entry into force at 15 April 2024, a 24-month Member State clock, and go-live at 16 April 2026. UK sponsors are non-EU for Article 42 NPPR. Jones Day, in December 2025, treated open-ended loan-origination RTS as non-essential and not formally adopted before 1 October 2027, with LMT RTS adopted by the Commission on 18 November 2025 and mandatory from 16 April 2027. Altius, writing on deadline day 16 April 2026, recorded substance of at least two full-time EU-resident natural persons, an originate-to-distribute ban, and that Belgium had not published implementing law on the day. That is live work for London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Munich and Paris funds lawyers through 2027. It is not a U.S. class-year scale driver. It is the European NQ and PQE driver.
Global asset managers
The general counsel who already buys the funds desk — and later hires its alumni as head of asset-management legal or assistant GC to a registered-fund complex.
Private-equity and private-credit sponsors
Buyout, continuation, direct-lending and BDC platforms. The chief legal officer here is matching a funds or leveraged-finance associate, not a first-year sticker.
CLO managers and warehouse banks
The firm claims 50 CLO-manager clients and 9 of 10 top investment banks on warehouse and asset-based financings. The in-house buyer is often treasury plus the head of legal.
Large-cap life sciences and technology
The About page names 4 of 5 top pharmaceutical companies as clients. Those legal departments hire the products, M&A and investigations alumni — on a company payroll, not a lockstep.
Preqin’s January 2026 primer put 2025 U.S. buyout deal value more than 30 percent above full-year 2024, average deal value above $100 million, and exit value 5.4 percent above the three-year trailing average and at its best since 2021. U.S.-focused buyout fundraising sat against $63 billion in 2024 and $104 billion in 2023. Continuation-fund count was up 20 percent. Preqin’s Private Credit Q2 2026 update recorded a Q2 surge that made H1 2026 a new record for first-half closed-end private-credit fundraising in Preqin’s data, with North America still prominent. No dollar AUM figure sat on the Q2 page and none is imported here.
Valuation Research Corp.’s Q2 2026 structured-products update, accessed 11 September 2026, put full-year 2025 U.S. CLO new-issue at about $206 billion, the largest year of CLO issuance on record, with year-to-date 2026 from 1 January at 146 new-issue U.S. CLOs and about $69 billion, below the same period of 2025 at about $102 billion. Middle-market CLO 2025 was a record 68 deals and about $35.7 billion; 2026 through May was 30 middle-market CLOs and about $15.0 billion. ABS gross issuance in 2025 was about $339 billion, up about 7 percent versus 2024. Dechert’s About page, accessed 11 September 2026, claims 10 of the top 10 global asset-management firms as clients, 50 CLO managers (“more than any other law firm” — the firm’s claim), 9 of 10 top investment banks on warehouse and asset-based financings, 350 or more private-equity and private-investment clients, and 4 of 5 top pharmaceutical companies. Those are named franchise counts, dated by page access, not fee income.
A separate clock hit the first-year class. The Presidential Memorandum “Hiring Freeze” of 20 January 2025 barred filling vacant federal civilian posts as of noon that day. Reuters, on 23 January 2025, reported Department of Justice Attorney General’s Honors Program offers rescinded, and cited NALP: 252 of the 2023 graduates in federal honors programs, 26 percent of 954 federal-government first jobs. Dechert’s 14 February 2025 notice opened the Impact Fellowship to five graduates whose federal offers were rescinded, with a full year at named legal-aid and civil-rights organizations and a 2025 program start in October. Those five are on the 2025/26 associate payroll for a pro bono year, then return. They are a small, dated increment to the first-year class, not a substitute for the U.S. scale. The 13 May 2026 firm news also recorded 50 mid-levels sent to Wharton for a four-day business program. The 2026 first-year class was not frozen for AI; mid-level training spend is the tell.
The hours gate is how this stack is built.
Write the offer on the cells that exist, then decide the geo.
We have worked the Philadelphia associate market for 8 years, for asset managers, private-equity and private-credit sponsors, and the companies that hire their outside-counsel alumni onto the payroll.
Over the trailing three years Sartori’s Philadelphia associate mandate telemetry records 23 closed searches, a 93 percent completion rate, a typical timeline of 6 to 12 weeks, and a median 9 working days from offer to signature. Counter-offers landed on 33 percent of those 23 closed associate files. Of those 23, 9 were company-side hires of Dechert-or-peer funds or finance associates in years 3 through 6, over that same 36-month window. Five of those 9 closed inside the 6-to-12-week band. Four ran past 12 weeks on the hours gate versus an in-house bonus plan, not on shortlist quality.
Three of those 9 lost first-round compensation authority. The general counsel had budgeted the June 2026 $235,000 market floor as if it were Dechert’s 2026 base, and the board would not reopen the class-year question on the first pass. Those three files are why a 93 percent completion rate is not a victory lap: two were re-scoped to a later class year and one stalled past twelve weeks. They did not vanish, and they did not fill on the original brief. That conversion cost is the uncomfortable number on this page.
In that Philadelphia interview cohort, 61 of 82 respondents sitting as general counsel, chief legal officer or head of legal at PE-backed, private-credit or asset-management companies over a 24-month window named the 2025 Dechert bonus memo — not a guessed 2026 base — as the only cash they would underwrite. A general counsel at a Philadelphia-headquartered registered-fund complex told us, inside that window, that a 2026 base was a rumor until it was a memo. A head of legal at a direct-lending platform said the 1,950-hour gate was the number that broke the in-house bonus plan, because the company’s own annual cash is not built on extraordinary-hours overlays.
Two composites, category only. A Philadelphia-headquartered U.S. retail asset manager asked us to move a year-5 funds associate from a Dechert-peer platform into an assistant general counsel, registered-funds seat — the first in-house role after a lockstep career. The company had used that firm as outside counsel on UCITS and U.S. registered-fund groups. Cash was not the bind on the 2025 bonus stack; the bind was whether the compensation committee would underwrite a 2026 base the firm had not printed. We rewrote the brief to the last Dechert-named first-year cell plus the printed bonus memo, with equity to close the gap, before the name circulated. Time-to-fill: ten weeks. A PE-backed private-credit platform asked for a London newly qualified solicitor as New York in-house counsel, direct lending. The first offer honored a U.S. first-year sticker and ignored the £165,000 NQ cell. The candidate’s counter, consistent with the 33 percent incidence on the Philadelphia associate line, was the London qualification-year base converted on the company’s own treasury rate, plus a signing bonus. We put class year and geo on the same document. Time-to-fill: eight weeks. No real company, firm or candidate is named in either file.
For how that search actually runs on a corporate payroll, see in-house counsel recruiting. For the associate lockstep when the buyer is still a firm, see associate recruiting. The in-house cash map sits on general counsel salary 2026 and in-house counsel salary 2026. How we count a mandate is on methodology.
Dechert 2026 pay: questions both sides of the table ask
What is Dechert salary in 2026 for U.S. associates, London NQs, and partners?
As of 11 September 2026, 18 Dechert-named cells are public: 14 U.S. 2025 bonuses, one PEP average, and three London bases. A 2026 U.S. class-year base grid that is Dechert-named is 0 of 8. The last Dechert-named U.S. first-year base in a primary is $225,000, reported 30 November 2023 by the Philadelphia Business Journal. London newly qualified pay prints at £165,000 on Legal Cheek’s 2026 firm page. Partner pay is public only as an Am Law profits-per-equity-partner average of about $6.2 million on 2025 results, published 23 March 2026, not as a partner salary scale.
What is Dechert partner salary, and what does the PEP figure actually measure?
Dechert partner salary is not a public figure; 2025 profits per equity partner averaged about $6.2 million. That cell is an Am Law average of equity-owner profit, published by Law.com on 23 March 2026 after an 11.9 percent smaller equity partnership, not a W-2. The firm’s UK Gender Pay Gap Report 2025 states that partners do not receive a salary and instead receive a share of profit. Nonequity and counsel dollar bands were not in the record. Treat PEP as a proxy for the equity pool, not as anyone’s paycheck.
What is Dechert NQ salary in London in 2026?
Legal Cheek’s 2026 firm page prints Dechert newly qualified salary at £165,000, with trainee bases at £55,000 and £61,000. The 29 September 2025 “Money talks” table independently listed the same NQ cell. The employer FAQ for the current cycle states 8 to 10 training contracts a year, vacation-scheme-only entry, and SQE 1 and 2 as the qualification route. Those three sterling cells are qualification-year bases, not a published PQE 1 through 8 London ladder. Dublin takes 2 to 3 trainees a year and is a separate Irish funds seat.
Did Dechert match the 2026 Milbank associate raise to $235,000–$455,000?
No. Above the Law’s 2026 raise scorecard, updated through 31 August 2026, does not list Dechert. Milbank announced the $10,000–$20,000 class-year raise on 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026. Bloomberg Law, on 17 June 2026, put the updated scale at $235,000 for first-years through $455,000 for eighth-years and wrote that more than a dozen firms had adopted it two weeks later. A general counsel cannot treat that ladder as a Dechert 2026 cell. The market table lives on a sibling page; this page owns which Dechert cells are public.
What hours must a U.S. Dechert associate record to be paid the 2025 bonus?
Above the Law’s 2025 bonus scorecard records a 1,950-hour eligibility floor, with an extra 30 percent of the year-end amount at 2,200 hours and 40 percent at 2,400. The floor counts client billable, pro bono, firm-as-client, and a maximum of 50 community hours. Payout was by or before the end of January 2026. Those tests sit on the 2025 cycle. They are not a 2026 bonus memo, and they are not a guaranteed payout. A company matching all-in cash has to assume the productivity test; an in-house bonus plan usually does not.
What should a general counsel budget to hire a Dechert-trained lawyer onto the payroll in 2026?
Budget the 14 public 2025 U.S. bonus cells and the London NQ base of £165,000; do not budget an unpublished 2026 U.S. class-year grid. Of 23 closed Philadelphia associate searches over three years, 9 were company-side hires of Dechert-or-peer funds or finance associates in years 3 through 6; 3 of those 9 lost first-round compensation authority because the board treated the June 2026 market floor as Dechert’s 2026 base. Write the class year and the geo on the same document before anyone sees a number, and close the hours-gate question before the compensation committee meets.
The November memo, the March P&L teaser, Legal Cheek, and the Philadelphia interview cohort.
U.S. bonus cells come from the 19 November 2025 firm memorandum as reprinted by Above the Law. Partner economics come from the 23 March 2026 Law.com teaser. London bases come from Legal Cheek. Reachability comes from Sartori's Philadelphia associate research program.
Sources and further reading
40 references- Sartori & Partners — Philadelphia Legal Talent Research Programme (250 structured interviews; ~7,500 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- Another Biglaw Bonus Match — And Extra Cash For The Associates Keeping The Lights On abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: Biglaw's 2025 Bonus Blitz abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: The 2026 Summer Of Salary Increases abovethelaw.com ↗
- ALERT: Milbank Does It Again — Associate Salaries Are Going Up!!! abovethelaw.com ↗
- Latest Associate Pay Raises Reflect Start of 'Prestige Law' Era news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- Biglaw Salary Scale + Bonuses (1968 - 2026) biglawinvestor.com ↗
- Cravath Starts Biglaw's Bonus Season With Year-End And Special Bonuses! abovethelaw.com ↗
- Compensation Memo — Year-End Bonuses & 2026 Base Salaries (Cravath, 18 November 2025) abovethelaw.com ↗
- Raft of Big Law firms line up to match pacesetter Cravath's associate bonuses globallegalpost.com ↗
- Dechert becomes first Philadelphia law firm to up starting salary to $225K bizjournals.com ↗
- Dechert Grew Revenue 6.6% in Its 150th Anniversary Year, Hitting $1.61B law.com ↗
- Dechert posts 27% PEP hike as expansion drive continues legalbusiness.co.uk ↗
- Dechert (Legal Cheek firm profile) legalcheek.com ↗
- Money talks: What newly qualified solicitors earn at the UK's top law firms legalcheek.com ↗
- UK Gender Pay Gap Report 2025 dechert.com ↗
- Dechert LLP 2022 NALP Snapshot dechert.com ↗
- $225,000 Entry-Level Salaries Not Yet the Standard at Large Firms nalp.org ↗
- About the Firm dechert.com ↗
- Dechert Attracts Large Partner Group, Opening New Offices in Chicago and Dallas dechert.com ↗
- US Summer Associate Program dechert.com ↗
- Dechert news, 13 May 2026 — 2026 U.S. summer class of 81; 50 mid-levels at Wharton dechert.com ↗
- London Training Programme FAQs dechert.com ↗
- Dublin Training Programme dechert.com ↗
- Financial Services and Investment Management dechert.com ↗
- Investment Funds and Investment Companies dechert.com ↗
- Private Funds dechert.com ↗
- Dechert LLP, Global 2026 | Chambers Profiles chambers.com ↗
- US Buyouts 2026: Deals, Exits, and Fundraising preqin.com ↗
- Private Credit Q2 2026: Preqin Quarterly Update preqin.com ↗
- Structured Products Market Trends: Q2 2026 CLO & ABS Update valuationresearch.com ↗
- NAPFM v. SEC, No. 23-60471 (5th Cir. June 5, 2024) ca5.uscourts.gov ↗
- Directive (EU) 2024/927 eur-lex.europa.eu ↗
- AIFMD 2.0: Focus on marketing of funds in the EU dechert.com ↗
- Hiring Freeze whitehouse.gov ↗
- Dechert Impact Fellowship Program Now Open to Graduating Law Students Whose Federal Offers Were Rescinded dechert.com ↗
- Pay Transparency Law for Employers (P687) dol.ny.gov ↗
- The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 legislation.gov.uk ↗
- Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) route sra.org.uk ↗
- Dechert Enhances Financial Services Group with Strategic Hire dechert.com ↗
U.S. year-end and special bonuses, the 2,200 / 30 percent and 2,400 / 40 percent overlays, and the January 2026 payout window are the 19 November 2025 Dechert memorandum as reprinted by Above the Law. The 1,950-hour gate is Above the Law's 2025 bonus scorecard. Absence from the 2026 raise table is the scorecard updated through 31 August 2026. Last Dechert-named U.S. first-year base is the Philadelphia Business Journal, 30 November 2023. 2025 revenue, PEP, net income and equity-partnership change are Law.com, 23 March 2026. London trainee and NQ bases are Legal Cheek's 2026 firm page.
Sartori maps lawyer coverage globally at about 1.5 million profiles and has run quarterly market surveys since 2019. The market lockstep this page does not own lives on the 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale. Partner-pay mechanics beyond this firm’s published proxies live on what partners really make at the Am Law top 50.
BigLaw Associate Salary Scale 2026
The market lockstep this page is not: the Milbank/market ladder by class year, which Dechert had not joined as of 31 August 2026.
Read the market scaleWhat Partners Really Make at the Am Law Top 50
Why PEP is not partner salary, and what a general counsel should ask before treating an Am Law average as a paycheck.
Read the PEP benchmarkIn-house counsel recruiting
How Sartori runs a corporate legal search when the seat sits on a company payroll — mandate design, confidential approach, offer architecture.
See the in-house deskA quiet conversation
Match the cells that are public — or walk past the ones that are not.
We price Dechert-trained associates and partners onto a company payroll against the dated table, not a guessed 2026 base. Confidential, no obligation. The company brief comes first.