Salary · Richmond associate economics
McGuireWoods Salary 2026: the New York lockstep a general counsel is matching
As of 11 September 2026, a general counsel matching this firm's 2026 cash is matching New York lockstep cells this firm has not named. The dated dollars sit in two markets. Only one of them is public.
McGuireWoods salary in 2026 is not a published grid.
Sartori maps about 4,000 lawyers in Richmond. The New York lockstep a general counsel is matching prints $235,000 at the junior rung, effective 1 July 2026; a firm-named 2026 class-year base is not in the record.
New York lockstep first-year / class of 2026–2025 base, Milbank memorandum 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026 — the cash a general counsel is matching, not a McGuireWoods-named cell. Milbank memo ↗
Four dated cells. Two are New York lockstep. One is this firm’s 2025 partner average. One is a hole. The class-year table a general counsel can actually underwrite is below.
- $1.2B
- 2025 gross revenue at this firm, up 9 percent, published 23 February 2026.
- National Law Journal, 23 February 2026
- ~191
- Equity partners on 2025 results, down about 7 percent from the prior year.
- National Law Journal, 23 February 2026
- $279,000
- U.S. GC/CLO median base, ACC 2025 survey, data effective 1 March 2025.
- ACC / Empsight 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey
- 15
- Lawyers elected partner effective 1 January 2026, announced 4 November 2025.
- McGuireWoods press release, 4 November 2025
The New York lockstep a general counsel is matching, cell by cell.
Milbank reset U.S. associate bases on 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026. That grid is the cash a company quotes against this firm. It is not this firm's 2026 memorandum.
Milbank’s 2 June 2026 memorandum to associates, hosted by Above the Law, raised U.S. associate base salaries effective 1 July 2026: classes of 2026 and 2025 from $225,000 to $235,000; class of 2024 from $235,000 to $245,000; 2023 from $260,000 to $270,000; 2022 from $310,000 to $320,000; 2021 from $365,000 to $385,000; 2020 from $390,000 to $410,000; 2019 from $420,000 to $440,000; 2018 from $435,000 to $455,000. The 2026/2025 increase applied to then-current summer associates. Those eight cells are New York lockstep cash. They are not a McGuireWoods payroll extract.
Searchers typing McGuire Woods salary land on the same Am Law 100 platform. The payroll entity is McGuireWoods LLP. The sibling page on the 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale owns the market ladder as a national table; this page sets that ladder against whether this firm has named a matching 2026 cell. It has not. Above the Law’s 2026 raise scorecard, first published 5 June 2026 with a table through 31 August 2026, lists Milbank, McDermott, Hueston Hennigan, Quinn Emanuel, Katten, Sullivan & Cromwell, Norton Rose Fulbright and others. McGuireWoods is not on that raises table.
| Class year | Seniority band | New York lockstep base | McGuireWoods 2026 named cell |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2026/2025 | Junior | $235,000 | Not public |
| Class of 2024 | Next class | $245,000 | Not public |
| Class of 2023 | Mid-junior | $270,000 | Not public |
| Class of 2022 | Mid-level | $320,000 | Not public |
| Class of 2021 | Upper mid | $385,000 | Not public |
| Class of 2020 | Senior mid | $410,000 | Not public |
| Class of 2019 | Senior | $440,000 | Not public |
| Class of 2018 | Eighth-year | $455,000 | Not public |
Lockstep bases: Milbank memorandum, 2 June 2026. McGuireWoods column: absence from Above the Law’s 2026 raise scorecard through 31 August 2026 and from the employer careers page accessed September 2026.
Biglaw Investor’s compiled 2026 table, accessed 11 September 2026, layers a $20,000–$115,000 year-end plus a $6,000–$25,000 special onto those bases and prints totals of $256,000 at the junior rung through $585,000 at the senior rung. Those totals are a compiler’s addition of public lockstep cells. They are not a McGuireWoods W-2. Cravath’s 18 November 2025 memorandum, also hosted by Above the Law, set the market year-end scale the compiler is adding: class of 2025 $15,000 prorated through class of 2018 $115,000, plus specials of $6,000 prorated through $25,000, with New York and D.C. payout on 12 December 2025. That PDF also prints Cravath’s own 1 January 2026 bases. Those bases are Cravath’s. They are not this firm’s.
NALP’s 2025 U.S. Associate Salary Survey, as of 1 January 2025 and published in the June 2025 Bulletin from 437 responding offices, put the overall median first-year base at $200,000 and the median at firms of more than 700 lawyers at $215,000. $225,000 was the modal figure, in 32 percent of all offices and 44.7 percent of offices in 701-plus firms. Reuters, on 28 May 2025, restated the same medians and noted that 2023’s $200,000 median would need to exceed $210,000 to match about 5 percent inflation. The July 2026 New York floor stepped off that distribution. It did not fill a McGuireWoods cell.
NALP overall first-year median
NALP 2025 U.S. Associate Salary Survey, as of 1 January 2025, published June 2025, 437 offices.
NALP Bulletin+, June 2025 ↗What McGuireWoods has actually published is an hours gate, not a 2026 sticker.
Treat a general counsel underwriting grid as eight 2026 bases, a bonus match, a PEP average, and a London qualification-year cell. As of 11 September 2026, the public McGuireWoods-named set is the hours policy and the 2025 results — not the sticker.
Printed New York lockstepUnpublished partner salary
- Lockstep comparator Class-year cash a company quotes. Dated June 2026. Effective July 2026. Public. Not this firm’s memo.
- 2026 U.S. base Eight class-year cells a compensation committee wants on the offer. Not in the raise scorecard. Not on the careers page.
- 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 firm-named, 11 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. class-year base, 2026 | 8 | 0 public; firm not on the raise scorecard through 31 August 2026 |
| U.S. year-end bonus, 2025 Cravath-match table | 7 | 0 public; firm not on the 2025 bonus tracker |
| Hours-gated bonus policy | 3 tiers | Public as 1,950 / 2,050 / 2,150; dollar grid not scraped |
| U.S. associate architecture | 1 | One U.S. scale across offices, announced May 2021; 2021 dollars omitted |
| Firm-average PEP, 2025 results | 1 | Public as an Am Law average, 23 February 2026; not a partner salary |
| London NQ and trainee bases | — | Not public |
| Individual equity-partner draw | — | Not public |
| Nonequity-partner and counsel bands | — | Not public |
| Clerkship bonus dollars | — | Policy public; dollar amount not published |
Counted from the sources in this article, not estimated from off-memo pay. Market (not firm-named) 2026 bases live on the 2026 market associate scale.
The last public structural fact on this firm’s associate grid is a single U.S. scale. Above the Law reported on 3 May 2021 that firm management emails moved the firm to one salary scale for all associates across all U.S. offices, with no 2021 special bonuses and an expanded productivity bonus pool. The dollar table on that page is an image that did not scrape. Those 2021 dollar cells are omitted. The architecture — one U.S. scale, not a New York-only sticker — is the 2021 fact a general counsel can still use. It is not a 2026 rate.
The last public bonus architecture is hours-gated. Above the Law, on 25 April 2024, reported a new McGuireWoods bonus policy that did not kick in until the following year, with hours tiers at 1,950, 2,050 and 2,150. Then-standard market bonuses were described as $15,000 to $115,000 for first- through seventh-year associates. Above the Law’s comparison: the 1,950-hour scale does not come close to meeting then-market; the 2,050-hour scale inches toward meeting market for first- through third-years and comes over the top by $10,000 for third-years, then slopes away; the 2,150-hour scale comes in over market for all class years. The McGuireWoods dollar grid itself is an image and is omitted. The hours gates and the qualitative vs-market read are the 2024 policy facts. They are not a 2026 bonus memo.
Above the Law’s 2025 bonus scorecard, first published 26 November 2025 with a table running into late December 2025, lists Cravath, Paul Hastings, Cadwalader, Fried Frank, McDermott Will & Schulte, Dechert, Paul Weiss, Davis Polk, Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell and dozens of others. McGuireWoods does not appear. Absence is not a denial that the firm paid some bonus. It is a denial that a Cravath-match dollar grid is public. The employer lawyers page, accessed September 2026, states hours and revenue targets and a competitive benefits package. It does not print a 2026 first-year or class-year base.
Law-student FAQs confirm a clerkship bonus and seniority credit from a federal district or highest state-court clerkship, without a dollar amount. NALP’s 2025 survey found 73 percent of responding offices offered judicial-clerkship bonuses. Extra incentive for consecutive multiple clerkships is described; the bonus typically lands in the first paycheck; relocation and bar-exam expenses are covered if the clerk sat or will sit in the work state. Direct candidates only: the judicial-clerk FAQs state that search-firm submittals are not accepted for post-clerkship applications. London lawyers are described as UK, U.S. and internationally qualified. An NQ sterling cell is not on the London office page and is omitted.
California Labor Code section 432.3, as amended by Stats. 2025, chapter 468 (SB 642), effective 1 January 2026, requires employers with 15 or more employees to include a good-faith pay scale in any job posting, including third-party postings, and to provide the scale to applicants on reasonable request. Civil penalty $100 to $10,000 per violation. That statute is why a general counsel can see California posting ranges even when this firm has not issued a 2026 class-year memorandum. A posting range is not a lockstep memo, and job-board reprints of those ranges are not used here.
The New York lockstep is the number a general counsel is matching. It is not this firm’s 2026 memo.
The lawyer who earns the figure sits inside the firm. The buyer who matches it does not.
Associates, counsel and two-tier partners earn the cash on an Am Law 100 platform headquartered in Richmond. The general counsel who matches it sits at the utilities, sponsors, health systems and banks that already buy the work.
The 2026 figure is earned on a law-firm seat, not in a corporate legal department.
- Headcount is a band, not a census. Firm location pages and the 5 February 2026 Seattle launch describe more than 1,000 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide. Richmond is the largest office, approximately 200 lawyers, and the seat of the chairman and managing partner. New York sits at 1251 Avenue of the Americas. London sits at 6 New Street Square. Those marketing lines are not a 2026 Am Law lawyer row.
- U.S. intake is a summer class in ten cities. 2027 2L summer programs run in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, Richmond, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Program length is ten weeks, May to late July. Seattle, opened 5 February 2026, is not on that 2027 summer list. Pro bono hours count toward hours targets.
- Recruiting is split by track. Lateral Attorney Recruiting — Corporate sits in Charlotte; Lateral Attorney Recruiting — Litigation sits in Chicago. That split is the public map of the two associate tracks a general counsel is buying: transactional and regulatory versus disputes and investigations. Hours and revenue targets sit on the lawyers careers page.
The general counsel who matches this cash already buys the work, and later hires the people who staffed it.
- Energy desks sell to utilities and traders. Energy Enforcement & Regulatory Counseling is framed as part of an energy industry team of over 200 lawyers and governmental-affairs professionals, with buyers around 30 percent of the nation’s utilities, plus independent power producers, trading houses and transmission owners in PJM and SPP. Forums are FERC, CFTC, NERC, state public service commissions. The in-house counterpart is general counsel or VP-regulatory at an investor-owned utility.
- In-house cash is a different stack. The Association of Corporate Counsel / Empsight 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey, 1,632 respondents, data effective 1 March 2025, puts U.S. general counsel / chief legal officer median base at $279,000 and median total cash at $341,000. Large-company CLOs at organizations with $5 billion-plus revenue have median total target direct compensation above $1 million. Seventy-seven percent of respondents have prior law-firm experience.
- BTI names the buyer panel. The financial-institutions page records BTI 2025: one of four firms in the Client Service A-Team Top 30 for ten consecutive years, based on unprompted feedback from general counsel at companies with $1 billion-plus revenue, 19th overall honor in 2025. That is a GC panel, not an associate scale.
Chambers USA 2026, in a firm release dated 4 June 2026, recorded 171 lawyer recognitions and 88 practice rankings, including 27 nationwide rankings and Band 1 in Energy: Electricity (Regulatory & Litigation), Public Finance, and Bankruptcy/Restructuring, with new or improved ranks in 10 practices. Legal 500 United States 2025, firm release 24 June 2025, recorded 41 nationwide practice rankings and Tier 1 in M&A middle-market (sub-$500 million) and Transport: rail and road — litigation and regulation. Those are ranking counts, not fee series. They are the hiring-label heatmap a head of legal uses to decide which desk to buy.
Practice labels that actually elevated in the 2026 partner class, announced 4 November 2025, fifteen lawyers effective 1 January 2026: mergers and acquisitions and energy transactional (Richmond, Charlotte); financial services and securities enforcement (Atlanta); labor and employment (Dallas); debt finance (Charlotte, Chicago); tax and employee benefits (Chicago, Charlotte); healthcare (Chicago, New York, Houston); commercial litigation (Raleigh); public finance / real estate (Richmond); government investigations and white collar (Richmond). The 2025 class, thirteen lawyers effective 1 January 2025, ran corporate and private equity, energy regulatory, financial-services enforcement, commercial litigation, healthcare, debt finance / restructuring, environmental and mass tort, labor and employment. Those labels — not a market-wide lockstep — are the firm’s published promotion mix.
Private-equity transactions says it represented nearly 300 PE funds and their portfolio companies over the past five years; the industry page says more than 200. Use as a 200–300 band. Healthcare Transactions & Finance buyers are for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals, PE-backed platforms, PPMs. Government investigations and white collar: more than 80 attorneys. Strategic M&A: more than 100 M&A lawyers. Financial institutions: leading financial-services institutions including the top 10 U.S. banks ranked by assets. Public finance: Bond Buyer ranks as quoted on the firm page, 10th in the Southeast, 2nd in Virginia, 4th in North Carolina, 5th in Maryland. McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, a subsidiary since 1998, does not provide legal services; it is a public-affairs sibling, not the associate payroll.
Investor-owned utilities and IPPs
The general counsel who already buys FERC, state-commission and energy-M&A coverage — and later hires the mid-levels who staffed the docket as associate GC-regulatory.
Middle-market PE and private credit
Sponsors, independent sponsors and portfolio companies on sub-$500 million deals. The chief legal officer here is matching a transactional associate, not a first-year sticker.
Health systems and PE-backed providers
Not-for-profit systems, payer-provider platforms and PPMs. The in-house seat is GC or associate GC-transactions on a company payroll.
Top-10 U.S. banks and broker-dealers
The financial-institutions desk names top-10 U.S. banks by assets among its clients. The buyer is a GC-enforcement or deputy GC-litigation, not a second law firm.
Partner pay at this firm is profit share. What is public is an average.
A partner paycheck here is not a lockstep cell. What a general counsel can read is 2025 gross revenue, an equity-headcount change, and an Am Law profits-per-equity-partner average.
The National Law Journal, on 23 February 2026, reported that McGuireWoods 2025 gross revenue rose 9 percent to $1.2 billion, average profits per equity partner climbed nearly 17 percent to $2.6 million, and equity-partner ranks declined about 7 percent to around 191. The managing-partner role attributed revenue to demand in litigation, regulatory and transactional practices plus billing-rate increases; the unlocked lead did not specify a rate percentage. Those three cells — revenue, PEP, equity count — are the capital that funds the 2026 payroll. PEP is an average of the equity pool after a smaller partnership. It is not a partner salary.
Above the Law, on 25 April 2024, printed 2023 gross revenue of $1,020,023,000 and Am Law 100 rank No. 52. That is the last full-dollar Am Law revenue cell for a year before 2025. Above the Law’s 15 April 2026 summary of the 2026 Am Law 100 (2025 results) recorded 62 firms clearing $1 billion revenue, up from 58; 94 firms posting revenue gains; Am Law 100 PEP up 14 percent; 70 firms with PEP growth of at least 10 percent. This firm’s $1.2 billion / $2.6 million PEP sit inside that cohort. The summary page does not print a McGuireWoods rank cell, and none is imported here.
Fifteen lawyers elected partner effective 1 January 2026 is a seniority pipeline, not a draw table. Thirteen elected effective 1 January 2025 is the prior class. Seattle added nine founding litigation partners on 5 February 2026, covering class actions, MDL, commercial and product-liability, antitrust and appeals, with aerospace and consumer-products manufacturers as the in-house counterpart. Los Angeles added a former SEC regional-director partner and an accountant-and-auditor-liability partner on 11 March 2026. San Francisco added an energy-tax partner on 8 June 2026. Those are partner-level seats. Associate leverage follows on a lag. Anyone selling the $2.6 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.
Cyclical cash is a 1 July 2026 lockstep reset funded by 2025 rate-and-demand growth. Structural cash is a Virginia utility-combination docket that keeps energy-regulatory mid-levels busy through 2027.
A lockstep dateA docket date
- Lockstep reset A New York memorandum reset class-year cash from 1 July. Matching firms fund a new floor. This firm has not named the cells.
- Commission calendar A named utility combination sits in a Virginia docket with an autumn evidentiary hearing and a close targeted the following year. Energy-regulatory hours, not first-year stickers.
- Credit sunset A federal tax-credit physical-work deadline pulled a West Coast energy-tax partner into the firm in the month before it hit. Deal execution, not a new first-year class.
ABA Journal, on 29 January 2026, reporting Wells Fargo Legal Specialty Group’s year-end 2025 survey of more than 130 firms, put industrywide revenue up 12.6 percent, Am Law 50 up 13.3 percent, rest of Am Law 100 up 11.9 percent, average standard rates up 9.6 percent, and demand (billable hours) up 3.5 percent. Practices named as solid: megacap M&A, debt capital markets, investment funds, litigation, employment, infrastructure, trade and real estate; middle-market M&A lagged then recovered in the fourth quarter of 2025. Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 Report on the State of the US Legal Market put 2025 law-firm profit growth at 13.0 percent, weekday-adjusted demand averaging 2.5 percent and peaking at 4.4 percent in July 2025, and average worked rates up 7.3 percent, with general counsel described as squeezed on stagnant budgets. The Q4 2025 Law Firm Financial Index, 10 February 2026, recorded 14.1 percent profit growth, Q4 demand still up 3.3 percent, M&A down 5 percentage points from its third-quarter pace, and bankruptcy work surging in December.
American Lawyer Deal Watch, 18 May 2026, recorded McGuireWoods leading for Dominion Energy on NextEra Energy’s all-stock $67 billion merger, combined-entity enterprise value estimated at $420 billion. The Virginia State Corporation Commission docket is PUR-2026-00112. The companies announced 15 July 2026 filings at the Virginia SCC, the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, FERC under Federal Power Act Section 203, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; close targeted second half 2027. Order for Notice and Hearing 21 July 2026; evidentiary hearing 17 November 2026. That calendar keeps energy-regulatory partners and mid-levels in Richmond, D.C. and Charlotte busy through 2027. It is not a first-year lockstep driver.
FERC, on 18 June 2026, issued Section 206 show-cause orders to all six RTOs/ISOs. 195 FERC paragraph 61,211 (PJM, Docket EL26-67-000) names Virginia Electric and Power Company among PJM transmission owners. Companion dockets cover MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO-NE and NYISO. FERC preliminarily finds existing tariffs unjust and unreasonable for large-load and co-located load integration. The firm’s 22 June 2026 alert dated intervene-by 9 July 2026, a resource-adequacy informational report 20 July 2026, show-cause answers 17 August 2026, and stakeholder comments 16 September 2026. DOE’s 23 October 2025 large-load ANOPR, FERC RM26-4-000 opened 28 October 2025, sits behind that fight. FERC Order No. 1920 (13 May 2024), 1920-A (21 November 2024) and 1920-B (11 April 2025) continue to pull mid-level hours into long-term transmission planning. Data-center interconnection is the load a hyperscale general counsel is matching lockstep cash to staff.
Public Law 119-21 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act), signed 4 July 2025, plus IRS Notice 2025-42 of 15 August 2025, put a 4 July 2026 physical-work deadline on most wind and solar credits under IRC sections 45Y and 48E, with the Physical Work Test the exclusive beginning-of-construction method for most projects. The firm announced an energy-tax partner returning in San Francisco on 8 June 2026 — in-house previously at a residential-solar company and a California investor-owned utility. That is partner-level tax/energy capacity in the month before the deadline. Associate demand is deal execution, not a new first-year class.
Two shorter cycles. The FTC/DOJ HSR-form expansion effective 10 February 2025 was vacated; the Fifth Circuit denied a stay pending appeal on 19 March 2026, so agencies accept the pre-February 2025 form. Dominion–NextEra still needs an HSR waiting-period expiry, on the old form. The FTC acceded to vacatur of the Non-Compete Clause Rule on 5 September 2025; labor-and-employment associates shifted from nationwide-rule compliance to state-law drafting plus case-by-case FTC Act defense. The 2026 partner class included a Dallas labor-and-employment elevation. Neither cycle is a 2027 summer driver.
Hours, not a published Cravath match, is how this bonus is built.
Write the offer on the cells that exist, then decide the desk.
We have worked the Richmond associate market for 5 years, for investor-owned utilities, PE-backed healthcare and energy platforms, and the companies that hire their outside-counsel alumni onto the payroll.
Over the trailing three years Sartori’s Richmond associate mandate telemetry records 16 closed searches, a 93 percent completion rate, a typical timeline of 6 to 12 weeks, and a median 12 working days from offer to signature. Counter-offers landed on 33 percent of those 16 closed associate files. Of those 16, 7 were company-side hires of McGuireWoods-or-peer energy-regulatory or middle-market private-equity associates in years 3 through 6, over that same 36-month window. Nine were firm-side associate processes on the same line.
Five of those 16 stalled past the 12-week typical timeline because the company insisted on a 2026 McGuireWoods class-year cell that is not public. We cannot see a 2026 first-year dollar at this firm, and the files that waited for one lost calendar, not shortlist quality. Three of the 7 company-side files lost first-round compensation authority: the general counsel had budgeted the July 2026 $235,000 market floor as if it were this firm’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.
In that Richmond interview cohort, 41 of 68 respondents sitting as general counsel, chief legal officer or head of legal at utilities, PE-backed platforms or financial institutions over a 24-month window named the unpublished 2026 McGuireWoods base as the number they still try to match against the New York lockstep. A general counsel at a Virginia investor-owned utility told us, inside that window, that the $235,000 New York floor is what the board uses as the outside-counsel associate cost, even when the firm on the docket has not published a matching memo. A head of legal at a PE-backed healthcare platform said the 1,950 / 2,050 / 2,150 hours gate was the number that actually moved the all-in cash they had to match, not the PEP headline.
Two composites, category only. A Virginia-headquartered investor-owned utility asked us to move a year-5 energy-regulatory associate from this firm’s peer set into an associate general counsel, FERC and state-commission seat — the first in-house role after a lockstep career. The company had used that platform as outside counsel on rate and certificate work. Cash was not the bind on the hours-gated bonus policy; the bind was whether the compensation committee would underwrite a 2026 base the firm had not printed. We rewrote the brief to the New York lockstep as a comparator plus the printed hours gates, with a signing bonus to close the gap, before the name circulated. Time-to-fill: eleven weeks. A PE-backed healthcare platform asked for a year-4 transactional associate as in-house corporate counsel. The first offer honored a U.S. first-year sticker and ignored the hours overlay a lockstep candidate actually earns. The candidate’s counter, consistent with the 33 percent incidence on the Richmond associate line, was all-in cash at the 2,050-hour gate, converted onto the company’s own bonus plan. We put class year and hours on the same document. Time-to-fill: nine 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.
McGuireWoods 2026 pay: questions both sides of the table ask
What is McGuireWoods salary in 2026 for U.S. associates and partners?
A 2026 McGuireWoods U.S. class-year base grid is 0 of 8 public cells. The New York lockstep a general counsel is matching is Milbank’s $235,000–$455,000 scale, effective 1 July 2026, and this firm is not on Above the Law’s raise table through 31 August 2026. Partner pay is public only as 2025 profits per equity partner of $2.6 million, published by the National Law Journal on 23 February 2026 — an Am Law average, not a paycheck. The last public bonus architecture is hours-gated at 1,950 / 2,050 / 2,150, reported 25 April 2024 for the 2025 cycle.
What is McGuireWoods partner salary, and what does the PEP figure measure?
McGuireWoods partner salary is not a public figure; 2025 profits per equity partner averaged $2.6 million. That cell is an Am Law average of equity-owner profit, published 23 February 2026 after equity ranks declined about 7 percent to around 191, not a W-2. Nonequity and counsel dollar bands were not in the record. Treat PEP as a proxy for the equity pool, not as anyone’s paycheck.
Did McGuireWoods 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 McGuireWoods. Milbank announced the class-year raise on 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026. A general counsel cannot treat that ladder as this firm’s 2026 cell. The market table lives on a sibling page; this page owns which McGuireWoods cells are public.
How does the McGuireWoods associate bonus work if the dollar grid is not public?
The last public architecture, reported 25 April 2024 and effective for 2025, gates bonus at 1,950, 2,050 and 2,150 hours. Above the Law described the 1,950-hour scale as not close to then-market, the 2,050-hour scale as inching toward market for junior classes, and the 2,150-hour scale as over then-market for all class years. The firm does not appear on the 2025 Cravath-match bonus tracker. Absence from that table is not a denial that some bonus was paid; it is a denial that a matching dollar grid is public.
What should a general counsel budget to hire a McGuireWoods-trained lawyer onto the payroll in 2026?
Budget the New York lockstep of $235,000–$455,000 as the comparator a candidate will quote, not as this firm’s 2026 memo. Of 16 closed Richmond associate searches over three years, 7 were company-side hires of energy-regulatory or middle-market private-equity associates in years 3 through 6; 3 of those 7 lost first-round compensation authority because the board treated the July 2026 market floor as this firm’s 2026 base. Write the class year and the hours gate on the same document before anyone sees a number.
Is McGuire Woods salary a different firm from McGuireWoods, and what does the in-house stack look like against it?
No. Searchers typing McGuire Woods salary reach McGuireWoods LLP: more than 1,000 lawyers in 21 offices, Richmond the largest seat at approximately 200. The in-house stack a chief legal officer compares is the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2025 survey, effective 1 March 2025: U.S. GC/CLO median base $279,000, with large-company ($5 billion-plus revenue) CLO total target above $1 million.
The June memorandum, the February P&L, the hours policy, and the Richmond interview cohort.
New York lockstep cells come from Milbank's 2 June 2026 memorandum. Partner economics come from the 23 February 2026 National Law Journal. Bonus architecture comes from Above the Law, 25 April 2024. Reachability comes from Sartori's Richmond associate research program.
Sources and further reading
54 references- Sartori & Partners — Richmond Legal Talent Research Programme (250 structured interviews; ~4,000 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- MEMORANDUM TO ASSOCIATES (Milbank, 2 June 2026) abovethelaw.com ↗
- ALERT: Milbank Does It Again — Associate Salaries Are Going Up!!! abovethelaw.com ↗
- Compensation Memo — Year-End Bonuses & 2026 Base Salaries (Cravath, 18 November 2025) abovethelaw.com ↗
- Cravath Starts Biglaw's Bonus Season With Year-End And Special Bonuses! abovethelaw.com ↗
- Biglaw Salary Scale + Bonuses (1968 - 2026) biglawinvestor.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: The 2026 Summer Of Salary Increases abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: Biglaw's 2025 Bonus Blitz abovethelaw.com ↗
- Biglaw Firm Adjusts Bonus Policy To Hand Out Big Bucks — But Only To Its Biggest Billers abovethelaw.com ↗
- Biglaw Firm Hands Out Raises — For Some Associates abovethelaw.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Revenue Rose 9%, as PEP Climbed Nearly 17% to $2.6M law.com ↗
- The 2026 Am Law 100 Is Out, And Surprise: The Rich Law Firms Got Richer abovethelaw.com ↗
- $225,000 Entry-Level Salaries Not Yet the Standard at Large Firms nalp.org ↗
- Despite Expectations, $225,000 Entry Associate Salaries Lag at Large Law Firms nalp.org ↗
- Starting law firm associate pay has been flat since 2023, NALP reports reuters.com ↗
- Revenue, billing rates and demand all up at law firms in 2025, survey shows abajournal.com ↗
- 2026 Report on the State of the US Legal Market blogs.thomsonreuters.com ↗
- Law firms' record-breaking 2025: Why technology investment will define what comes next thomsonreuters.com ↗
- 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey Executive Summary Report acc.com ↗
- Richmond mcguirewoods.com ↗
- New York mcguirewoods.com ↗
- London mcguirewoods.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Launches in Seattle With Elite Litigation Team mcguirewoods.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Launches in Seattle With Elite Litigation Team (PR Newswire) prnewswire.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Elects 15 Lawyers to 2026 Partnership Class mcguirewoods.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Elects 13 Lawyers to 2025 Partnership Class mcguirewoods.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Earns Top Rankings in Chambers USA's 2026 Leading Lawyers Guide mcguirewoods.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Earns 41 Nationwide Practice Rankings in Legal 500 United States Guide mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Lawyers | McGuireWoods Careers careers.mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Law Student FAQs careers.mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Judicial Clerk FAQs careers.mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Recruiting Contacts careers.mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Energy Enforcement & Regulatory Counseling mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Deal Watch: Kirkland, McGuireWoods Guide $67B Energy Deal law.com ↗
- Virginia SCC - Dominion-NextEra Merger scc.virginia.gov ↗
- 195 FERC ¶ 61,211, Order Instituting Proceeding Under Section 206 (PJM, EL26-67-000) ferc.gov ↗
- Explainer on the Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation Final Rule ferc.gov ↗
- FERC Issues Section 206 Show Cause Orders Directing All Six RTOs/ISOs to Justify or Reform Large-Load Integration Rules mcguirewoods.com ↗
- FERC Establishes Proceeding to Consider DOE Directive on Large-Load Transmission Interconnection Rulemaking mcguirewoods.com ↗
- IRS and Treasury Issue Beginning of Construction Guidance Related to Termination of Tax Credits for Wind and Solar Facilities gibsondunn.com ↗
- Tax Partner Returns to McGuireWoods, Bolstering Firm's Renewable Energy Capabilities mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Premerger Notification Program ftc.gov ↗
- Statement of Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak Regarding the Commission Acceding to Vacatur in Ryan LLC v. FTC ftc.gov ↗
- California Code, LAB 432.3 leginfo.legislature.ca.gov ↗
- Private Equity mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Private Equity Transactions mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Healthcare Transactions & Finance mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Financial Institutions mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Government Investigations & White Collar Litigation mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Public Finance mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Securities Enforcement & Regulatory Counseling mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Strategic Mergers & Acquisitions mcguirewoods.com ↗
- McGuireWoods Adds Former SEC Regional Director and Leading Accountant & Auditor Defense Lawyer in L.A. mcguirewoods.com ↗
- Data Centers mcguirewoods.com ↗
New York lockstep bases are the 2 June 2026 Milbank memorandum, effective 1 July 2026. Absence from the 2026 raise table is the scorecard updated through 31 August 2026. Hours tiers are Above the Law, 25 April 2024. 2025 revenue, PEP and equity-partnership change are the National Law Journal, 23 February 2026. In-house medians are ACC / Empsight, effective 1 March 2025.
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 McGuireWoods 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 McGuireWoods-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.