Salary · Named firm · 2026
The discarded mid-level on Goodwin's 2026 scale
Boston still publishes a 4th-year cell of $310,000 on a 1 January 2026 lockstep PDF. The market treats that rung as just lockstep. A general counsel matching this firm still needs the person who sits on it.
The cell the market discards is the one a GC still buys.
Sartori maps 3,500 Boston lawyers as a coverage read of the associate market. Anyone hunting a Goodwin Procter salary in 2026 is usually staring at lockstep. The cell that matters is the first $50,000-plus jump.
Base for a 4th-year associate (class of 2022) on Goodwin's U.S. associate PDF, salary effective 1 January 2026 — the first $50,000-plus single-year jump on that grid, and the seniority a matching general counsel still hires. Goodwin PDF ↗
Four rungs from one dated PDF. The 4th-year and 5th-year cells are the ones a general counsel matching this firm still cannot replace with a first-year or a chief legal officer. The PDF, the memos and the statutes sit below.
- 1,950
- ARC hours that gated 2025-performance U.S. associate bonus eligibility, including pro bono, in the internal email Bloomberg Law quoted on 16 December 2025.
- Bloomberg Law, 16 December 2025
- 67
- U.S. summer associates Goodwin welcomed for summer 2026, across offices, on the firm's alumni newsletter.
- Goodwin Alumni Newsletter, Summer 2026
- £175,000
- London newly-qualified base, raised effective 1 June 2024 and still the published NQ cell on 29 September 2025.
- Law Gazette, 6 June 2024; Legal Cheek, 29 September 2025
- $2.72B
- Calendar-year 2025 gross revenue, up 11.2 percent - a different period from the fiscal year ending 30 September 2025.
- Goodwin reprint of Law.com, 16 March 2026
The 2026 Goodwin Procter salary grid
The only primary U.S. associate base table for this named firm is the pay-transparency PDF copyrighted 2026. It is a class-year lockstep, not a practice-by-practice band, and it is not the market-wide ladder owned by a sibling page.
Goodwin Procter LLP published “U.S. Associate Salary Ranges,” salary effective 1 January 2026, with a footnote that amounts will be adjusted for flex-time schedules. The cells run: 1st / class of 2025 $225,000; 2nd / 2024 $235,000; 3rd / 2023 $260,000; 4th / 2022 $310,000; 5th / 2021 $365,000; 6th / 2020 $390,000; 7th / 2019 $420,000; 8th and up / 2018+ $435,000. That is the dated USD table this page opens on. It is the firm's own published cells, accessed from goodwinlaw.com on 11 September 2026.
The 3rd-to-4th step is +$50,000. The 4th-to-5th step is +$55,000. Those two jumps are larger than 1st-to-2nd (+$10,000) or 2nd-to-3rd (+$25,000). A Boston ERISA / executive-compensation posting accessed the same day seeks a mid-level or senior associate with 4–7 years and tells candidates to view salary information for the position — the same PDF. The firm is still pricing the discarded mid-level as the public offer for the seniority a matching general counsel actually hires.
That PDF exists because U.S. state pay-transparency regimes now force a posted range. California is the obvious driver; New York City Local Law 144 also sits on the firm's summer-associate page as the disclosure for the Suited automated screen. A general counsel matching this firm can open the 4th-year $310,000 and 5th-year $365,000 cells without a memo leak. In 2023 that dollar spine lived in an internal compensation note Above the Law published on 21 December 2023. In 2026 it is a public matching price. The market still talks as if lockstep were trivia. The buyer who has to put a lawyer on the payroll can now read the price the firm itself will pay for the same seniority.
| Class year | Seniority | Base (1/1/2026) | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2025 | 1st year | $225,000 | +$10,000 at 2nd |
| Class of 2024 | 2nd year | $235,000 | +$25,000 at 3rd |
| Class of 2023 | 3rd year | $260,000 | +$50,000 at 4th |
| Class of 2022 | 4th year | $310,000 | +$55,000 at 5th |
| Class of 2021 | 5th year | $365,000 | +$25,000 at 6th |
| Class of 2020 | 6th year | $390,000 | +$30,000 at 7th |
| Class of 2019 | 7th year | $420,000 | +$15,000 at 8th |
| Class of 2018+ | 8th year and up | $435,000 | top of PDF |
Source: Goodwin Procter, U.S. Associate Salary Ranges, © 2026. The same dollar spine already appeared as 2025 bases in the 9 January 2025 Attorney Review Committee memo Above the Law published, rolled forward one class year. The market-wide 2026 lockstep is a different URL; this table is this firm's.
Goodwin 1st-year base, 1 January 2026
Class of 2025 on the firm's own PDF.
Goodwin U.S. Associate Salary Ranges © 2026 ↗A matching general counsel cannot staff a controller deal with a first-year or a CLO.
Who still buys the discarded mid-level
The lawyers who earn this lockstep sit in two seats: the Am Law-scale firm that still posts 4-5 year private-equity M&A in Boston, and the in-house desks that buy that work and later hire the same seniority.
Class-year labelIndependent file owner
- Junior lockstep A first-year or second-year can sit in the room. They cannot run committee process, a continuation-vehicle auction, or an S-1 without a partner on the phone.
- Discarded mid-level The 4th-year and 5th-year cells. Live 2026 postings still ask for this seniority and point applicants at the same PDF.
- The GC's hire In-house, the same person becomes corporate counsel or a first associate general counsel, transactions — not a CLO, and not a 7-year FDA regulatory seat.
Across 250 structured interviews with Boston partners and counsel, 58 of 82 in-house respondents sitting as general counsel, associate general counsel or head of legal at PE-backed and life-sciences companies over a 24-month window named a 4th-to-6th-year deal lawyer as the seniority they cannot staff internally. That is the discarded cell, read from the buyer's side.
A matching general counsel cannot staff a controller deal with a first-year or a CLO. The Association of Corporate Counsel, using Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS data through 2024, put the U.S. in-house counsel population at 145,000 in 2024, up from 78,000 in 2008. Massachusetts held 6,600 in-house counsel in 2024, at 92 per 100,000 population — third after the District of Columbia and New York, on the same ACC paper. Departments are larger. They are not staffed with independent deal managers at every rung.
CLOC's 2025 State of the Industry report, from the 2024 Harbor Law Department Survey of 186 organizations, found 83 percent of departments expect demand for legal services to keep growing and 63 percent name workload and resource bandwidth as the top challenge. To absorb volume, 39 percent increase the workload of existing legal resources; only 21 percent invest in AI. The first lever is more work on the people already there. That is exactly when the general counsel still buys a 4th-to-6th-year at the outside firm, or hires that seniority onto the payroll.
The lockstep payer is the firm. The live ask is mid-level, not the summer class.
Goodwin's lateral-associate careers page, accessed 11 September 2026, puts associates across six core industries: healthcare, investment funds and capital, life sciences, private equity, real estate, and technology. Client types named as classes: top startups to FTSE 100 household names. Alumni, the same page says, span in-house counsel, judges, entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders. FY25 gross revenue of $2.7 billion, growth of more than 12 percent, is restated there as a fiscal-year figure — a different period from the calendar-year 2025 $2.72 billion treated below.
Visible 2026 postings on the firm's own careers search are not a first-year census. Private Equity M&A in Boston asks for 4–5 years, independent management of transaction components, a deal sheet, and a relevant bar (or prompt eligibility). Life Sciences Corporate in New York and San Francisco asks for 2–4 years of lifecycle corporate work including public-company work, registered equity offerings, ongoing SEC representation and M&A. Public M&A in New York asks for 3–6 years; Real Estate Public M&A for 5+ years on the same securities overlay. ERISA / executive compensation in Boston and Washington DC asks for 4–7 years on equity-based and incentive plans for public and private companies. Technology Corporate in Boston still buys a class of 2025 junior — and still requires a deal sheet. Tax entry-level admits J.D. or LL.M. classes of 2026 and 2027 as a feeder into PE and funds work.
Credential language repeats: outstanding academic credentials, comparable law-firm experience, relevant bar or prompt eligibility. No posting names a minimum class rank or a named law school as a hard gate. Massachusetts admission by motion, under SJC Rule 3:01 as restated by the Board of Bar Examiners and the National Conference of Bar Examiners, requires admission in another U.S. jurisdiction for at least five years and active practice or teaching for five of the past seven. A 4th-year on the 2026 PDF (class of 2022) generally cannot waive into Boston HQ by motion yet. That is why the postings say “eligibility to obtain admission promptly.”
The in-house buyer is a PE sponsor, a portfolio company, a life-sciences issuer, or a technology company — not a law-firm hiring committee.
Goodwin's private-equity industry page names the buyer types in classes: private-equity sponsors, early- through late-stage investors, portfolio companies, senior management teams, lenders, financial institutions, and alternative investors. Five workstreams: buyouts, growth equity, investment funds and capital, debt finance, portfolio companies. Healthcare PE adds the standing overlay a general counsel already lives with: Anti-Kickback, Stark, False Claims Act, HIPAA, licensing, certificates of need, corporate practice of medicine, reimbursement. Life sciences, on the firm page, covers companies through the corporate lifecycle plus investors and banks, with more than 230 dedicated lawyers — a firm-stated bench size, not a third-party census.
That is the general counsel who later hires the same seniority. An anonymized 2026 employer posting for a clinical-stage AI-enabled biotech asked for an Associate General Counsel, Regulatory and Technology, reporting into a General Counsel alongside a separate AGC-Transactions: 7+ years with substantial in-house time, FDA IND/NDA/BLA, and EU AI Act / FDA AI frameworks. That seat is not the discarded 4th-year. It shows the split a matching legal department actually runs: product and regulatory at 7+ already in-house; the 4–5 year PE or life-sciences corporate lockstep remaining the outside-counsel and first-in-house deal seat.
Bloomberg Law reported on 20 October 2025 that the firm rolled out a client-immersion program placing most junior lawyers with clients' in-house counsel, paid full salary and bonus-eligible — a direct pipeline from the lockstep seat onto the general counsel's floor. The summer 2026 alumni newsletter hosts an in-house job board and a March 2026 speed-networking event with the ACC Northeast Chapter in Boston. The path is not a rumor. The matching price is now a PDF a head of legal can open without calling anyone.
| Seat | City | Years asked | Credential gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private Equity M&A | Boston | 4-5 | Deal sheet; bar required |
| Life Sciences Corporate | New York / San Francisco | 2-4 | SEC / IPO / M&A; bar or prompt eligibility |
| Public M&A | New York | 3-6 | Public-company M&A; deal sheet |
| Real Estate Public M&A | New York | 5+ | Same public-company overlay |
| ERISA / Executive Compensation | Boston / Washington DC | 4-7 | Equity plans; bar preferred |
| Technology Corporate | Boston | Class of 2025 | Deal sheet; bar or prompt eligibility |
| Tax, entry-level | New York (multi-office) | Class of 2026 / 2027 | J.D. or LL.M.; no deal-sheet line |
Sources: Goodwin careers pages for each row, accessed 11 September 2026. The Boston Private Equity M&A card is the 4th/5th-year lockstep cell written as a hiring spec.
The 2024-2026 stack writes the demand, not lockstep
Demand for the people who earn this scale is being written by Delaware process rules, a vacated SEC private-fund code, a new stablecoin statute, an expanded QSBS regime, an FDA funding lapse and an FTC PBM case.
Common-law trapSettled statutory path
- Entire fairness expands Match Group holds that every controller transaction with a non-ratable benefit needs the full MFW package, freeze-out or not.
- The statute substitutes Delaware SB 21 amends DGCL §144 to create safe harbors for conflicted and controller deals, including a conjunctive going-private test.
- The path holds Rutledge answers the certified questions: the safe harbors do not strip Chancery of equity jurisdiction. Process is now the job, and first-years do not own it.
Delaware SB 21, signed 25 March 2025 and effective on enactment, amends Title 8 §144 to create safe harbors for interested director and officer acts and for controlling-stockholder transactions. It defines a controlling stockholder, including at or above 33.3 percent voting power plus managerial authority. The going-private safe harbor is conjunctive: a disinterested committee and a disinterested-stockholder vote. Goodwin's own 3 April 2025 alert restated the shift. The hiring consequence is not a first-year memo. It is Public M&A and PE take-private desks at 3–6 and 4–5 years who already run committee process, disclosure and vote mechanics — the exact specs on the 2026 postings.
That statute was written against In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation, decided by the Delaware Supreme Court on 4 April 2024: entire fairness as the presumptive standard for all controller transactions with a non-ratable benefit; business-judgment review only with the full MFW package; every committee member independent. On 27 February 2026, in Rutledge v. Clearway Energy Group LLC, the same court upheld SB 21's constitutionality. Mid-level M&A and litigation associates who can paper a two-director disinterested committee stay scarce. A general counsel of a controlled public company still buys that seniority as outside counsel.
Funds work moved the other way. On 5 June 2024 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in National Association of Private Fund Managers v. SEC, vacated the August 2023 private-fund advisers package. The SEC's own page now carries a disclaimer that the newly adopted rules have been vacated. Goodwin's 6 June 2024 alert walked the authority holdings. Investment Funds and Capital is not a junior quarterly-statement machine. It is principles-based Advisers Act process on GP-led continuation vehicles — mid-level funds and PE associates, and sponsor general counsel, from 2024 through 2026.
Two 2025 statutes recut the emerging-company file. The GENIUS Act, Public Law 119-27, enacted 18 July 2025, is the first federal payment-stablecoin statute; implementing regulations are due within one year of enactment, so 2026 is the build year for financial-services and technology regulatory associates and in-house product counsel. Public Law 119-21, enacted 4 July 2025, expands IRC §1202: Gibson Dunn's 15 July 2025 restatement puts, for stock acquired after that date, a 50 percent exclusion at three years, 75 percent at four, 100 percent at five, an issuer gross-asset cap of $75 million, and a per-issuer dollar cap of $15 million. Tax associates and mid-level growth-equity lawyers recut cap tables on that clock. A general counsel at a venture-backed issuer cannot staff it with a first-year.
Life-sciences desks spent the turn of 2025–26 on a stopped clock. HHS's FY2026 FDA contingency staffing plan, content last reviewed 8 September 2026, states that during a lapse the agency cannot accept new NDAs, ANDAs, BLAs, biosimilars, animal-drug or device submissions that require a user fee. The same page records that Congress later provided FY2026 appropriations so FDA can continue through 30 September 2026 with 16,089 staff onboard. Delay-the-clock counseling is 2–4 year Life Sciences Corporate work and in-house AGC regulatory work. When the window reopens, the same mid-level files the backlog. On the healthcare-PE side, the FTC sued the three largest PBMs on 20 September 2024, alleging rebate practices that inflated insulin list prices; the three administer about 80 percent of all prescriptions. Express Scripts settled on 4 February 2026 and Caremark on 14 July 2026, on the FTC's PBM tag page. That is healthcare antitrust and PE regulatory mid-level work, not a class-of-2025 lockstep task.
| Instrument | When | Seat it hits | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware SB 21 / DGCL §144 | Signed 25 March 2025 | Public M&A and PE take-privates, 3-6 / 4-5 years | Statutory safe harbors for conflicted and controller deals replace the full MFW package for most files. |
| Fifth Circuit PFAR vacatur | 5 June 2024 | Investment Funds and Capital, PE secondaries | Adviser-led continuation vehicles return to principles-based Advisers Act process, not a junior checklist. |
| GENIUS Act (P.L. 119-27) | Enacted 18 July 2025 | Financial-services and technology regulatory | First federal payment-stablecoin statute; 2026 is the build year for implementing regulations. |
| QSBS expansion (P.L. 119-21) | Enacted 4 July 2025 | Tax and emerging-company / growth-equity | Staged exclusion and a $75 million issuer-asset cap recut cap tables on a three-year clock. |
| FDA FY2026 lapse plan | Reviewed 8 September 2026 | Life Sciences Corporate and in-house AGC regulatory | New fee-bearing filings stop in a lapse; the same mid-level files the backlog when the window reopens. |
| FTC PBM complaint and settlements | Filed 20 September 2024 | Healthcare PE regulatory and antitrust | Rebate-practice case against the three largest PBMs, with 2026 settlements - not first-year lockstep work. |
Capital that turns those rules into hours
Cyclical capital in 2025 did not invent the mid-level cell. It decided how many files landed on it.
Renaissance Capital's 2025 Annual Review, dated 2 January 2026, counted 202 U.S. IPOs raising $44.0 billion, a four-year high against 150 deals and $29.6 billion in 2024, excluding closed-end funds and SPACs. That is Life Sciences Corporate and Technology Corporate work at 2–4 years on S-1 mechanics, registered equity and ongoing SEC representation — the exact New York and San Francisco specs. A general counsel at an issuer cannot staff an IPO with a first-year.
The NVCA 2026 Yearbook recorded U.S. venture deploying $320 billion across 15,352 deals in 2025, up 51 percent year on year, with AI at 65.4 percent of deal value. Fundraising of $67 billion was the lowest in nine years. The people who close those financings are the same mid-level the PDF prices at $310,000 and $365,000. Bain & Company's 23 February 2026 press release on its Global PE Report put 2025 global buyout deal value excluding add-ons at $904 billion, up 44 percent, on 3,018 transactions, down 6 percent. Thirteen deals of $10 billion-plus accounted for 30 percent of value. Megadeals concentrate partner time. The discarded mid-level runs the rest of those 3,018 transactions and the continuation-vehicle processes after the private-fund rules vanished. GP-led continuation vehicles rose 62 percent year on year in that same Bain release.
Biopharma did not share the IPO window. BioSpace, on 18 February 2026, reporting PitchBook, put 2025 biopharma venture at $33.8 billion across 1,171 deals. J.P. Morgan's Q4 2025 biopharma deck counted only 9 U.S. biopharma IPOs raising $1.6 billion through Q4 2025, the least active in over a decade, against 129 biopharma M&A deals totaling $138 billion. A life-sciences general counsel still needs outside mid-level because the public window stayed thin. The 4th-year cell is not optional in a drought. It is the person who keeps the SEC file moving while the FDA clock is stopped and the IPO window is not.
New York is housing that work for a decade-plus. Commercial Observer reported on 3 April 2025 a 20-year, 250,000-square-foot lease at 200 Fifth Avenue, up from 216,419 square feet at 620 Eighth Avenue, with a move planned for late 2026. That is a capital commitment to the Public M&A, PE, life-sciences corporate and funds seats, not a wind-down. Bloomberg Law's 20 October 2025 fiscal-year piece also recorded that the firm laid off attorneys, paralegals and professional staff amid a slowdown in corporate work beginning January 2023, then rebuilt the client-facing muscle a matching general counsel actually uses. The discarded mid-level is the person who survives that cycle.
The 4th-year is the first outside lawyer who can run the committee paper without a partner on the call.
Bonus, partner-pay proxy, and the London cell
Base is the PDF. Bonus is a memo and an email. Partner salary is not a salary. London is a different currency and a different qualifying exam.
Above the Law published the 9 January 2025 Attorney Review Committee memo on 2025 U.S. associate compensation and 2024 bonuses. For the fiscal year ending 30 September 2024, associates who met a 1,950 ARC-hour threshold and the Attorney Development Frameworks were eligible. Year-end plus special bonus, by then-class: 2023 $20,000 + $6,000; 2022 $30,000 + $10,000; 2021 $57,500 + $15,000; 2020 $75,000 + $20,000; 2019 $90,000 + $25,000; 2018 $105,000 + $25,000; 2017+ $115,000 + $25,000, paid in the 24 January 2025 monthly pay. Fourth-year-and-above associates with a Distinctive rating, and associates with ARC hours materially higher than 1,950, could receive amounts above class. Below Frameworks: not bonus eligible. Associates hired after 31 August 2024: not eligible for that bonus year. Up to 100 hours of Culture & Innovation time after the first 25 counted toward eligibility; pro bono counted the same as billable. The firm asked lawyers to commit at least 50 pro bono hours and cited the Pro Bono Institute Pledge of 3 percent to 5 percent of annual billable hours.
For 2025 performance, Bloomberg Law reported on 16 December 2025 that associates receive a pair of extra payments totaling up to $140,000, matching the Cravath seniority bonus scale, with payment by 30 January 2026, per an internal Tuesday email. Eligibility, as the email was quoted: bill at least 1,950 hours, including pro bono work plus 100 hours of innovation work and 25 hours of training time. Above the Law's matcher table listed Goodwin's match date as 15 December 2025 and a 1,900-hour gate. This page uses 1,950 as the figure attributed to the internal email and does not average the two. Middle class-year bonus cells for 2025 performance were not printed in the Bloomberg article or the matcher endpoints and are omitted. Counsel were eligible for a $25,000 special bonus atop individualized deals; Department and Discovery Attorneys for a $6,000 special, per Above the Law on 16 December 2025. Individual 2026 counsel base is not public.
Individual partner salary is not public. The dated partner-pay proxy is calendar-year 2025 profits per equity partner of $4.24 million, up 17 percent, the first time over $4 million, on $2.72 billion gross revenue, up 11.2 percent, and $1.32 billion net income, up 16.6 percent — Goodwin's 16 March 2026 reprint of Law.com, which states that these figures reflect calendar-year 2025 results after the firm last year reported fiscal-year performance. Do not chain that series to the fiscal year ending 30 September 2025, when Bloomberg Law reported on 20 October 2025 that revenue was $2.7 billion, growth more than 12 percent, and revenue per lawyer more than $1.6 million, with the firm ranked 18th in Am Law's 2024 list by revenue. PEP is an average over equity partners. It is not a draw, a W-2, or a nonequity salary. Anyone selling $4.24 million as “what a Goodwin partner earns” is counting on the reader not knowing the denominator.
The firm About page, accessed 11 September 2026, says more than 1,800 Goodwin Procter lawyers; the Locations page lists 17 offices across North America, Europe and Asia, with Boston as headquarters. Those are firm-stated figures, a band, not a single audited headcount. London, established 2008 on the office page, publishes a different cash spine. The Law Gazette reported on 6 June 2024 that NQ salary rose from £160,000 to £175,000 effective 1 June 2024, with year-one trainees at £55,000 and year-two at £60,000. Legal Cheek still listed Goodwin NQ at £175,000 on 29 September 2025. The firm's Early Careers UK page restates those three cells and adds PGDL and SQE maintenance grants of £12,000 and £18,000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority SQE route, as of its August 2025 page, requires a degree or level-6 equivalent, SQE1 and SQE2, and two years' full-time (or equivalent) qualifying work experience. No 2026 London NQ raise above £175,000 was found in a firm announcement. A U.S. general counsel matching the Boston PDF should not convert that sterling cell into a Massachusetts offer.
NALP's 2025 U.S. Associate Salary Survey, as of 1 January 2025 and released 28 May 2025, put the overall median first-year base at $200,000, with $225,000 the modal figure at 32 percent of 437 offices, and Boston among six cities where the median starting salary had reached $225,000. That is context for why Goodwin's 1 January 2026 first-year cell sat at the modal large-firm figure NALP recorded a year earlier. It is not this firm's 2026 table, and it is not the Cravath-scale story. Named firm is the thesis.
What it takes to match the discarded cell
Sartori & Partners has worked the Boston associate market for eight years. The mid-level the PDF prices is the seniority companies still fail to brief as a matching problem.
Firm lockstep payerCompany payroll
- The firm Pays the PDF. Posts 4–5 year PE M&A in Boston and points candidates at the same cells a GC can now read.
- The sponsor or issuer Buys the hours while the file is episodic: controller deals, continuations, S-1s, FDA-clock counseling.
- The in-house seat When hold periods stretch and the signature is the company's, the same 4th-to-6th-year comes onto the payroll. That is a company search.
Sartori & Partners runs a continuous research program over its own records: nearly 1.5 million lawyer profiles mapped globally, and quarterly market surveys running since 2019. Of 26 closed Boston associate searches over three years, 14 were mid-level seats (years 4–7) into private equity, life-sciences corporate, funds or ERISA / executive compensation; 7 were junior seats (years 1–3) into technology corporate or tax; 5 were other associate files. Completion across the 26 was 93 percent. Typical timeline is 6 to 12 weeks. Median offer-to-acceptance, on the same Boston associate line, is 10 working days. Counter-offer incidence is 38 percent.
The uncomfortable number is the one that makes those rates believable. Of those 14 mid-level files over three years, 4 ran past the 12-week end of the typical timeline, each time because the company would not pre-clear cash against the published 4th-year or 5th-year cell. The general counsel had asked for “a corporate counsel.” The brief, once opened, was a 5th-year deal lawyer priced on a public PDF the hiring team had treated as lockstep trivia. We closed the other 10 inside the window. The four that ran long are why this page exists.
In the same 26 closed files, counter-offers arrived in 38 percent of processes. Seven of the 14 mid-level files drew one — usually from the Am Law-scale firm that still prints the cell. A head of talent at a PE-backed healthcare platform in Boston who waits until the offer letter to discover that number will lose the candidate in the 10-day window. A general counsel at a PE-backed healthcare portfolio company in Boston told us the 4th-year is the first outside lawyer who can run the committee paper without a partner on the call. A head of legal at a venture-backed life-sciences issuer said their in-house AGC is already 7+ years on FDA and product; they still buy the 2–4 year corporate seat as outside counsel because an S-1 is not a first-year file and is not a CLO file.
Three composite engagements, described by category only. A PE-backed healthcare platform in Boston hired an in-house deal counsel against the 4–5 year Private Equity M&A spec. The leading candidate was New York-admitted, class of 2022, and could not waive into Massachusetts by motion under the five-of-seven rule; the start date turned on UBE transfer and the $1,015 motion-alternative path. A counter-offer arrived from the firm. The file closed in 11 weeks, inside the 6-to-12-week band, once cash was set to the $310,000 cell plus equity. A venture-backed public life-sciences issuer needed corporate counsel for SEC, IPO and M&A work matching the 2–4 year Life Sciences Corporate posting. The department already had a 7-year AGC on regulatory. The deal seat closed in 8 weeks. A growth-equity sponsor needed funds counsel after the private-fund advisers rules vanished. That file was one of the four that ran past 12 weeks: 14 weeks, a second shortlist, and a close only after the company priced to the $365,000 5th-year cell. No real company, firm or candidate is named in those three files.
Across 250 structured interviews with Boston partners and counsel, 41 of 64 respondents sitting as hiring partners or practice chairs at Am Law-scale firms over a 24-month window said the 4th-year is the first class that can independently manage components of transactions. That language is the firm's own posting boilerplate. It is also what a chief legal officer is buying, whether the check is an outside-counsel invoice or an offer letter. If you are filling that seat, in-house counsel recruiting and PE-portfolio legal recruiting are the company-side desks; associate recruiting is the firm-side counterpart. For what a general counsel chair itself pays, see general counsel salary 2026.
Goodwin pay, asked directly
What is the Goodwin Procter salary scale for U.S. associates in 2026?
Goodwin's own PDF prices U.S. associate base from $225,000 to $435,000, effective 1 January 2026. The 4th-year (class of 2022) cell is $310,000 and the 5th-year (class of 2021) cell is $365,000 — the first $50,000-plus single-year jumps on that grid. Amounts adjust for flex-time schedules. This is the firm's published table, not a market-wide lockstep restated as Goodwin's. Individual partner salary is not on the PDF.
How much does a Goodwin 4th-year or 5th-year associate earn in 2026?
A 4th-year (class of 2022) earns a $310,000 base; a 5th-year (class of 2021) earns $365,000, effective 1 January 2026. Those two cells are the seniority the firm's own 2026 Boston Private Equity M&A posting (4–5 years) and ERISA / executive-compensation posting (4–7 years) still point applicants to. Year-end bonus is separate: for 2025 performance, Bloomberg Law reported extra payments totaling up to $140,000, gated at 1,950 hours. A matching general counsel reads those cells as a public matching price, not as lockstep trivia.
Does Goodwin publish partner salary in 2026?
No dated individual partner salary is public; calendar-year 2025 profits per equity partner averaged $4.24 million. That figure, reprinted by Goodwin from Law.com on 16 March 2026, is an average over equity partners, up 17 percent and the first time over $4 million. It is not a W-2, a draw, or a nonequity salary. Counsel base for 2026 is also not public; the measured cash is a $25,000 special bonus on top of individualized deals, per Above the Law on 16 December 2025.
Did Goodwin match the June 2026 $235,000 first-year raise?
Not in any public matcher table through 31 August 2026; the firm's PDF still prints $225,000. Milbank moved first-years to $235,000 and eighth-years to $455,000 on 2 June 2026, presumed effective 1 July, as Above the Law's scorecard recorded. Boston.com wrote on 31 July 2026 that Goodwin had not publicly announced a matching salary. The retention shock sits on the $310,000 and $365,000 cells, not on the first-year floor alone.
Why would a general counsel still hire this mid-level in 2026?
Of 26 closed Boston associate searches over three years, 14 were mid-level seats a matching general counsel still cannot staff with a first-year. Delaware controller-deal process, GP-led continuations after the Fifth Circuit vacated the SEC private-fund code, and life-sciences SEC files all land on people who already run components of a transaction. The firm's own 2026 postings still ask for 2–4, 3–6, 4–5 and 4–7 years. A CLO does not replace that file; neither does a class of 2025 associate.
What bonus did Goodwin U.S. associates receive for 2025?
Bloomberg Law reported on 16 December 2025 that associates receive extra payments totaling up to $140,000. The internal email, as quoted, gated eligibility at 1,950 hours including pro bono, up to 100 innovation hours and 25 hours of training, with payment by 30 January 2026. Above the Law's matcher listed a 1,900-hour gate for the same round — a conflict; this page uses the email figure and does not average the two. Middle class-year cells for 2025 performance were not printed in those two sources and are omitted.
Pay-transparency PDF, bonus memos, and the 2024-2026 statute stack
Associate bases are the firm's dated PDF. Bonus mechanics are a memo and an email. Partner economics are a calendar-year average. Capital-cycle figures are Bain, Renaissance Capital, NVCA and J.P. Morgan. Statutory dates are the enacting instruments.
Sources
38 references- Sartori & Partners - Boston Legal Talent Research Programme (250 structured interviews; ~3,500 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- U.S. Associate Salary Ranges (© 2026 Goodwin Procter; salary effective 1/1/2026) goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Top 20 Biglaw Firm Announces Bonus Structure For Associates (9 January 2025 memo) abovethelaw.com ↗
- Goodwin Procter Matches Cravath Associate Bonuses, Awards Staff (16 December 2025) news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: Biglaw's 2025 Bonus Blitz abovethelaw.com ↗
- Holidays Come Early For Top 20 Biglaw Firm (16 December 2025) abovethelaw.com ↗
- Goodwin Revenue Surges 11% to $2.7B Amid Sector-Based Strategy (Law.com reprint, 16 March 2026) goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Goodwin Procter Collects Record $2.7 Billion on M&A, Litigation (20 October 2025) news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: The 2026 Summer Of Salary Increases (5 June 2026) abovethelaw.com ↗
- This Boston law firm is boosting starting salaries to $235,000 (31 July 2026) boston.com ↗
- Private Equity M&A – Mid-Level/Senior Associate | Boston goodwinlaw.com ↗
- ERISA/Executive Compensation – Mid-Level/Senior Associate | Boston goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Life Sciences Corporate – Mid-Level Associate | New York goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Public M&A – Mid/Senior Associate | New York goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Bill Detail - Delaware General Assembly (SB 21, signed 25 March 2025) legis.delaware.gov ↗
- National Association of Private Fund Managers v. SEC (5th Cir. 5 June 2024) ca5.uscourts.gov ↗
- Public Law 119–27 (GENIUS Act) govinfo.gov ↗
- H.R.1 became Public Law No: 119-21, 4 July 2025 congress.gov ↗
- Focus on QSBS Provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (15 July 2025) gibsondunn.com ↗
- 2026 Food and Drug Administration Contingency Staffing Plan hhs.gov ↗
- FTC Sues Prescription Drug Middlemen… (20 September 2024) ftc.gov ↗
- Bain & Company Global PE Report press release (23 February 2026) bain.com ↗
- Renaissance Capital 2025 Annual Review (2 January 2026) renaissancecapital.com ↗
- NVCA 2026 Yearbook nvca.org ↗
- Q4 2025 Biopharma Licensing and Venture Report jpmorgan.com ↗
- Early-Stage Biotechs Suffer in 2025 As VC Shuns Risk: PitchBook (18 February 2026) biospace.com ↗
- ACC U.S. In-house Counsel Population Statistics (BLS through 2024) acc.com ↗
- CLOC 2025 State of the Industry Report (Harbor 2024 survey) cloc.org ↗
- Despite Expectations, $225,000 Entry Associate Salaries Lag at Large Law Firms (NALP, 28 May 2025) nalp.org ↗
- Goodwin increases NQ salary to £175,000 (6 June 2024) lawgazette.co.uk ↗
- Money talks: What newly qualified solicitors earn at the UK's top law firms (29 September 2025) legalcheek.com ↗
- Eligibility for Admission by Motion | Mass.gov mass.gov ↗
- Massachusetts (NCBE jurisdiction chart) ncbex.org ↗
- About Us | Goodwin Procter | Law Firm goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Summer Associate Program | Goodwin goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Top 15 Biglaw Firm Announces Big Bucks For Hardworking Associates (21 December 2023) abovethelaw.com ↗
- Life Sciences Law Firm and Litigators | Goodwin goodwinlaw.com ↗
- Law Firm Goodwin Procter Finalizes 250K-SF Lease at 200 Fifth Avenue (3 April 2025) commercialobserver.com ↗
Associate bases are Goodwin's U.S. Associate Salary Ranges, salary effective 1 January 2026. 2024-performance bonuses and the 1,950-hour gate are the 9 January 2025 Attorney Review Committee memo. 2025-performance bonus cap and hours are Bloomberg Law quoting an internal email on 16 December 2025; the ATL matcher hour-gate is recorded as a conflict, not averaged. Calendar-year 2025 revenue and profits per equity partner are Goodwin's 16 March 2026 reprint of Law.com; fiscal-year 2025 revenue is Bloomberg Law, 20 October 2025. Individual partner and counsel base salary are not public. Live posting years are the firm's careers pages, accessed 11 September 2026. In-house population figures are ACC from BLS OEWS. CLOC/Harbor is a law-department operations survey, not a search-firm report.
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