Salary · Paul, Weiss
Paul Weiss salary 2026: the PEP cell, then the scale a general counsel must match.
The 2026 Am Law 100, published 15 April 2026 for calendar-year 2025, is the dated partner-pay disclosure. The associate scale and the bonus memo are the cash a company writes when it hires the same talent onto its own payroll.
Open on the dated number, then price the hire.
The 2026 Am Law 100 is the partner-pay disclosure. The associate scale and the bonus memo are what a general counsel matching this firm actually writes a check for.
Above the Law, restating the 2026 Am Law 100 on 15 April 2026, ranks Paul Weiss seventh on profits per equity partner at $8.631 million for calendar-year 2025, up 14.45 percent. That cell is a ratio. A chief legal officer matching this firm still has to price the associate grid. Board slide, not offer letter.
Four dated cash lines, one hiring problem: the PEP cell is public; the associate match a company must fund is a 2023 scale plus a 2025 bonus, read against a 2026 market the firm has not publicly joined. Every number is cited below.
Sartori maps about 67,000 lawyers in New York. We have worked this market for more than 10 years. The question a chief legal officer asks is not whether the 2026 Paul Weiss partner salary cell is large. It is whether the company’s next M&A, funds or finance hire has to clear the same cash the firm’s last public associate scale and its November 2025 bonus memo already put on the table. The people who earn those figures sit inside a New York-headquartered partnership of more than 1,500 lawyers. The people who pay a matching figure sit in general counsel offices, chief legal officer chairs and heads of legal at public companies, sponsors and portfolio businesses.
- $2.318M
- Revenue per lawyer in the 2026 Am Law 100 (calendar-year 2025), up 9.96 percent — ninth in the table, a hair behind Skadden.
- Above the Law, 15 April 2026, restating the 2026 Am Law 100
- $3.26B
- Firm-reported 2025 gross revenue as restated on Legal Cheek's Paul Weiss page, with PEP there at $8.63 million.
- Legal Cheek, Paul Weiss firm page, accessed 11 September 2026
- 28
- Partners elevated effective 1 January 2026 — New York 16, London 8, Washington 3, Tokyo 1 — the partnership's revealed preference.
- Paul, Weiss firm news, 5 December 2025
The 2026 Paul Weiss partner salary disclosure is a ratio.
Profits per equity partner is distributable profit divided by equity-partner FTE. A general counsel who puts that cell in a board pack still has to hire on a different number.
A published ratioA hiring number
- Not a paycheck PEP divides a profit pool by equity-partner heads. It is silent on draws, guarantees, capital calls and the non-equity tier.
- Not an origination split The cell does not say who originated the book, how credit is shared, or what a rainmaker takes above the average.
- Not an in-house offer A company matching this firm is not matching PEP. It is matching the associate scale and the bonus memo the lockstep actually paid.
Profits per equity partner is a ratio, not a W-2. Above the Law, restating the 2026 Am Law 100 on 15 April 2026, places Paul Weiss seventh on that ratio at $8.631 million, up 14.45 percent on calendar-year 2025. The same table puts Wachtell at $12.152 million, Kirkland and Ellis at $11.121 million, Davis Polk at $9.800 million, Quinn Emanuel at $9.545 million, Gibson Dunn at $8.890 million and Latham and Watkins at $8.654 million, with Simpson Thacher immediately behind at $8.569 million. Am Law 100 PEP as a group was up 14 percent in 2025; 70 firms posted at least 10 percent PEP growth. Those are league facts. They do not set the associate offer.
Revenue per lawyer on the same 15 April 2026 table is $2.318 million, up 9.96 percent, ninth, a thousand dollars a year behind Skadden. Legal Cheek’s Paul Weiss page, accessed 11 September 2026, restates 2025 firm-reported revenue at $3.26 billion and PEP at $8.63 million. David Lat, writing in Original Jurisdiction on 17 April 2026, rounded the same Am Law year to $3.3 billion in gross revenue, up 24 percent, and $8.6 million in PEP.
The New York office is home to more than 900 attorneys, on the firm’s own location page. Across 11 offices and 45 practice areas the platform tells clients it is a global firm of more than 1,500 lawyers. That is a marketing headcount band, not an Am Law FTE. It is enough geography for a chief legal officer to know the lockstep is a New York-HQ product with a London private-equity seat beside it, not a regional boutique.
A general counsel at a Fortune 50 financial-services company told us, in the New York interview work, that the PEP cell is a board slide, not a hiring number. The board wants to know the firm is busy. The head of legal wants to know what it costs to hire the same M&A or funds lawyer onto the payroll. Those are different questions, and only the second one opens a mandate.
The PEP cell is a board slide, not a hiring number.
The last public associate scale is still 29 November 2023.
Paul Weiss had not publicly matched the $235,000 scale through 31 August 2026. A general counsel matching this firm is matching the last memo, read against a market that has already moved.
Paul Weiss associate salary, on the last firm-authored U.S. memo the legal press actually opened, runs from $225,000 for the class of 2023 to $435,000 for the class of 2016. Above the Law published that grid on 29 November 2023 as a Cravath match, with year-end bonuses then of $15,000–$115,000 and a further discretionary round in early 2024. No later Paul Weiss-authored U.S. base-scale memo was.
The 2L summer program page still pays an annualized $225,000, prorated for the weeks worked. That is the figure a company matching first-year lockstep is already pricing at the OCI stage, before the associate has a full-year W-2.
| Class year (memo) | Seniority | Base salary |
|---|---|---|
| Class of 2023 | 1st year | $225,000 |
| Class of 2022 | 2nd year | $235,000 |
| Class of 2021 | 3rd year | $260,000 |
| Class of 2020 | 4th year | $310,000 |
| Class of 2019 | 5th year | $365,000 |
| Class of 2018 | 6th year | $390,000 |
| Class of 2017 | 7th year | $420,000 |
| Class of 2016 | 8th year & senior | $435,000 |
Source: Above the Law, 29 November 2023, reporting the firm memo. Posted laterals bases on the careers page as of 11 September 2026 still sit inside this $225,000–$435,000 band.
Paul Weiss first-year base, 29 November 2023 memo
Last firm-authored U.S. floor on the public record. Still the first-year figure Legal Cheek restates, and still the 2L summer annualized rate.
Above the Law, 29 November 2023 ↗NALP’s U.S. Associate Salary Survey, as of 1 January 2025 and published 28 May 2025, put the national median first-year base at $200,000 across 437 offices, the median at firms of 701 or more lawyers at $215,000, and the New York City median at $225,000. Six cities shared that $225,000 median: Austin, Boston, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and Washington DC. That is the junior market a New York general counsel was matching before Milbank moved the floor in June 2026. It is also why a company that still budgets $200,000 for an elite-firm junior is a year behind the city median, and two steps behind the 2026 market move.
The 2025 bonus memo is the cash line a first offer usually forgets.
The 2025 bonus memo set no hours floor. Combined year-end and special awards ran from $21,000 to $140,000, paid 22 December 2025.
Base salaryAll-in cash
- Base The class-year floor from the last public memo. Lockstep, not individual billings. The number most companies put in the first offer.
- Year-end bonus The autumn scale most lockstep firms match. At this firm in 2025, paid with a special award on the same December date, with no hours gate.
- Special / discretionary The 2025 special sat on top of year-end. Further discretionary amounts promised for early 2026 were not published as dollars.
Paul Weiss bonus economics in the last published cycle are a combined number, not a year-end cell. Business Insider, on 2 January 2026, reported a 20 November 2025 memo seen by the publication: a year-end bonus plus a “special 2025 bonus,” paid 22 December 2025, combining to $21,000 for the junior class (prorated) through $140,000 for 2018 and senior. Above the Law printed the same grid the day after the memo, except that it lists class-of-2022 year-end as $57,000 rather than $57,500. Both prints are on the record. Above the Law’s 2025 bonus tracker, 26 November 2025, records the match date as 21 November 2025 and the hours floor as none.
The memo also promised additional discretionary bonuses in early 2026 for outsized contributions. Those amounts were not published. No 2026 midyear Paul Weiss bonus memo sits on the public record; the summer 2026 scorecard records other firms’ specials and does not put this firm on the bonuses table.
| Class year | Year-end | Special 2025 | Combined | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2025 | $15,000 | $6,000 | $21,000 | Prorated |
| Class of 2024 | $20,000 | $6,000 | $26,000 | |
| Class of 2023 | $30,000 | $10,000 | $40,000 | |
| Class of 2022 | $57,000–$57,500 | $15,000 | $72,000–$72,500 | Source conflict on year-end |
| Class of 2021 | $75,000 | $20,000 | $95,000 | |
| Class of 2020 | $90,000 | $25,000 | $115,000 | |
| Class of 2019 | $105,000 | $25,000 | $130,000 | |
| Class of 2018+ | $115,000 | $25,000 | $140,000 | Senior cap |
Sources: Business Insider, 2 January 2026; Above the Law, 21 November 2025 and the 26 November 2025 bonus tracker (no hours floor; payout 22 December 2025).
Match the bonus memo or lose the midlevel.
The people who earn this figure, and the desks that have to match it.
Posted laterals still advertise the 2023 $225,000–$435,000 base band. That band is what a general counsel, a chief legal officer or a head of legal is matching when the hire comes off this platform.
Of 214 in-house legal leaders — general counsel, chief legal officers and heads of legal — inside that New York cohort, over a 24-month window, 128 named the published lockstep, not their last in-house band, as the number they price against when the candidate is coming off this firm’s M&A, funds or finance desks. The remaining 86 were still trying to hire off an internal range written for a different feeder. The first group closes. The second group reopens the compensation conversation, which is the finding that does not flatter the easy story: companies know the PEP cell and still under-price the associate.
Of 33 closed New York associate searches over three years, 19 were company-side M&A, funds, finance or capital-markets seats at public issuers, sponsors and portfolio companies matching this firm’s client book. The other 14 were firm-side associate mandates in the same city and line.
A chief legal officer at a mega-cap private-equity sponsor told us the firm lost two midlevel M&A laterals in 18 months because the company matched base and not the combined $21,000–$140,000 bonus. Match the bonus memo or lose the midlevel. That is the in-house version of the same cash map.
Who earns the lockstepWho pays a matching figure
- The firm seat Associate to counsel to equity, on a New York-HQ lockstep, with London as a private-equity and public-M&A desk rather than a generalist City office.
- Public-company legal AGC and VP Legal seats in M&A, licensing, antitrust, product and investigations at Fortune 50 and other large issuers in financial services, technology, life sciences, energy and media.
- Sponsor and manager legal General counsel and chief legal officer chairs at private-equity, credit and asset-management platforms, plus portfolio-company legal reporting into the same deals.
The laterals and judicial-clerks page, accessed 11 September 2026, is the only public, dated list of which desks want people now. Gate language is the same on every U.S. posting: excellent experience and academic credentials. Clerk hires who join directly after a judicial clerkship receive $125,000, or $150,000 if the clerkship lasted two years or more, or after two or more years of clerkships. The firm says it has 10 former Supreme Court clerks and more than 80 former federal appellate clerks. Wilmington litigation prefers a Court of Chancery clerk. Tokyo corporate requires a U.S. JD and native Japanese. Those are employer disclosures, not Sartori estimates.
London is a separate sterling product. Legal Cheek, on 29 September 2025, listed Paul Weiss NQ cash at £180,000, tied with Davis Polk and Gibson Dunn at the top of 100-plus firms, against an average NQ across that list of £118,756. The firm page lists first-year trainees at £60,000 and second-year trainees at £65,000, with a PGDL grant of £20,000, an SQE grant of £20,000, and 10 training-contract places. The SRA’s qualifying-work-experience page, updated 26 January 2024 and still the live rule, requires two years’ full-time (or equivalent) QWE, confirmable by a solicitor of England and Wales or a COLP. A New York general counsel of a UK-exposed group matching this firm’s London NQ is matching that sterling line, not converting the dollar lockstep at an invented rate.
The firm’s investment-funds page says it represents eight of the top 10 private-equity firms in the world, responsible for over $2 trillion in assets under management, and that it functions as an extension of a client’s general counsel office. That is the firm’s description of its client book, not an audited AUM series. It is useful only as a map of who is buying the work: large public-company GC offices, PE and alternative-asset-manager in-house legal, portfolio-company legal, banks, and sovereign and pension LPs as funds counterparties.
| Firm desk (hiring now) | Offices | Years | Posted base | Typical in-house counterpart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M&A | New York, Houston, San Francisco | 3–6 / 3–8 | $260,000–$390,000 | AGC / VP Legal, M&A and strategic transactions |
| Private Funds & Investment Management | New York; Los Angeles 1–3 | 2–6 | $235,000–$390,000 | AGC, fund formation; GC / CLO of the manager |
| Tax | New York | 3–6 | $260,000–$390,000 | Tax counsel |
| Capital Markets / Structured Finance | New York | 3–7 | $260,000–$420,000 | Counsel, capital markets or treasury legal |
| IP & Technology Transactions | New York | 4–7 | $310,000–$420,000 | AGC, transactions and licensing |
| Life Sciences Licensing | New York | 3–8 | $260,000–$435,000 | AGC, licensing and collaborations, large public life sciences |
| Antitrust Litigation | New York, San Francisco, Washington | 4–6 | $310,000–$390,000 | AGC, antitrust / competition |
| M&A Litigation | New York, Wilmington | 3–7 | $260,000–$420,000 | Deputy GC, litigation — or remain at a firm |
| Mass Torts & Product Liability | New York, Los Angeles | 1–8 | $225,000–$435,000 | AGC, product litigation |
| Wilmington Litigation | Wilmington | 2–4 | $225,000–$295,000 | Chancery-trained commercial counsel; clerk preferred |
Source: Paul, Weiss laterals and judicial-clerks page, accessed 11 September 2026. First-year Corporate applications were open for Fall 2026; first-year (any) for Fall 2027. Tokyo is an entry-level Corporate seat with a language and JD gate, not a dollar band on that page.
The lockstep is a class-year product. Credit, clerkship cash and the London path are the parts the headline base hides.
- Class-year credit travels. A lateral move can advance or quietly set back the year that sets the base. On a lockstep, that is the offer.
- Clerk cash sits on top. The employer publishes $125,000 or $150,000 for lawyers who join directly after a clerkship. That is not a signing rumor; it is on the laterals page.
- London is sterling, not a conversion. NQ cash of £180,000 (Legal Cheek, 29 September 2025) is an English-qualified seat on a private-equity platform, reached through a vacation scheme and a training contract or SQE plus QWE.
- Hours are not the bonus gate. The tracker records no minimum hours for that cycle. Do not read a Legal Cheek survey clock as a firm-published billable target.
A general counsel matching this firm is matching three public layers and one political overlay, not a single PEP cell.
- Price the posted band. Live laterals still advertise $225,000–$435,000. That is the company’s starting grid until a new firm memo exists.
- Add the bonus layer first. Combined 2025 cash of $21,000–$140,000 is what midlevels actually received. Omitting it is how first offers fail.
- Decide the market-floor question in writing. The 2026 market floor is $235,000. This firm has not publicly joined it. A company that waits for that memo is waiting on a document the matcher table does not show.
- Counsel selection carries a political overlay. Executive Order 14244 revoked the 14 March 2025 order after a $40 million pro-bono-equivalent arrangement. A head of legal matching this firm is matching that history as well as the scale.
The 2025 deal cycle, the 2026 rulebook, and a partnership that just put corporate in charge.
A general counsel matching this firm is matching megadeal capacity, not a generalist intern class. The dated drivers below are what still price the seats on the laterals page.
Reuters, on 7 January 2026, citing London Stock Exchange Group, put announced global M&A at $4.6 trillion in 2025, up 49 percent, the highest since 2021, with 68 transactions of $10 billion or more, the most since LSEG records began in 1980. Dealogic printed a different 2025 total of $5.1 trillion on 2 January 2026. Those are different compilers; they are not averaged here. Bloomberg Law, on 5 February 2026, reported that Paul Weiss lawyers steered more than $327 billion of M&A last year. Bloomberg’s H1 2025 league tables, 2 July 2025, had the firm fifth globally at $142 billion. LSEG, on 9 June 2026, put Q1 2026 global announced M&A at a five-year high, up 27 percent year on year. That cycle is why the laterals page is still a 3–7 year M&A, funds, finance and capital-markets brief, and why a company matching those desks is matching megadeal capacity.
The Federal Open Market Committee, in minutes of the 28–29 July 2026 meeting, held the federal-funds target at 3.50 to 3.75 percent on a 9–3 vote. This is not 2021 zero-rate M&A. Financing, restructuring and liability-management seats stay live even while announced deal value is up. The American Bankruptcy Institute, using Epiq AACER data, reported 956 commercial Chapter 11 filings in January 2026, up 76 percent from 544 in January 2025. A general counsel at a stressed issuer, or a PE owner of a leveraged portfolio company, is competing for the same New York restructuring bench the firm just promoted: two of the 28 partners elevated effective 1 January 2026 sit in restructuring.
The 28-partner class effective 1 January 2026, announced 5 December 2025, is the partnership’s revealed preference. New York took 16 seats (M&A, finance, investment funds, capital markets, IP and technology transactions, restructuring, antitrust, litigation). London took 8 of 28 (finance, tax, antitrust, M&A, investment funds) — a structural English-law private-equity platform, not a satellite. Washington took 3 (litigation, investment funds, national security). Tokyo took 1 (M&A). Practice mix: finance 7, M&A 5, investment funds 4, antitrust 3, tax 2, restructuring 2, litigation 2, plus one each in IP and technology transactions, national security and capital markets. The prior class, announced 6 December 2024, was 34 partners effective 1 January 2025.
On 4 February 2026 the firm appointed the chair of its Corporate Department as chairman, the same day the long-serving chairman resigned. The announcement still described a Houston office as opening. Leadership of partner compensation and office investment now sits with an M&A chair, not a litigators’ chair. Expect the laterals page to keep bidding for 3–7 year M&A, finance and funds lawyers, and for Houston energy and infrastructure M&A at 3–6 years. Litigation prestige recovery after March 2025 is a 2026 and 2027 problem for the same partnership.
March 2025 is the overlay a head of legal cannot pretend is not on the file. Executive Order 14237, signed 14 March 2025 and published in the Federal Register on 20 March 2025, directed agencies to suspend active security clearances held by individuals at the firm, to restrict official building access, and to review contracts. Executive Order 14244, 21 March 2025, revoked it after the firm agreed, among other terms, to the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services during the presidential term. Reuters, on 20 March 2025, reported that the firm told a New Jersey judge it had been fired by a client in a bribery case because of the original order. A litigation boutique founded by lawyers who left rather than work under that arrangement matched the Milbank 2026 lockstep in a June 2026 memo, effective end of July 2026, while Paul Weiss had not announced a match. A general counsel matching “Paul Weiss litigation” in 2026 is matching a market that now includes that spin-out, not only Am Law lockstep. The boutique’s first-year bonus cap is not a Paul Weiss figure.
CFIUS and outbound rules are why Washington national-security and New York funds laterals stay scarce. The Treasury, on 7 August 2026, reported 347 CFIUS notices and declarations of covered transactions or covered real estate for calendar 2025, and said the committee cleared 67 percent of distinct transactions in the 30-day declaration window or the initial 45-day notice review. The firm’s 20 August 2026 restatement of the same report splits that 347 into 207 notices and 140 declarations; of 207 notices, 114 went into the second 45-day investigation. The America First Investment Policy memorandum of 21 February 2025 pointed CFIUS at PRC-affiliated capital in technology, infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, energy and raw materials, and put the outbound regime under review. Treasury’s Outbound Investment Security Program, 31 CFR Part 850, has applied to completion dates on or after 2 January 2025 in semiconductors, quantum and AI with a country-of-concern nexus. The Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act became law inside the FY 2026 NDAA on 18 December 2025; Part 850 remains the operative form until new regulations, which Treasury has 450 days to write. A chief legal officer at a sponsor with Asia exposure is building that diligence file now, not in March 2027.
Antitrust form-prep is no longer the 2025 surge. The FTC’s expanded HSR form took effect 10 February 2025. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas set those rules aside on 12 February 2026; on 19 March 2026 the Fifth Circuit denied a stay, so the pre-2025 form is again the default. The 2026 size-of-transaction threshold still rose, to $133.9 million from 17 February 2026, on the FTC’s 20 January 2026 thresholds blog. Second-request and conduct-investigation laterals — the 4–6 year antitrust litigation seats posted in New York, San Francisco and Washington — remain the scarce in-house match, because staff can still demand the extra documents on deals that draw interest. Clayton Act Section 8 interlock dollars also moved: competitor corporations are covered if each has capital, surplus and undivided profits over $54,402,000, with a competitive-sales floor of $5,440,200, effective 16 January 2026 as restated in the firm’s 16 January 2026 memo. Every PE portfolio-company general counsel still needs that 2026 audit.
Delaware reset the Chancery product underneath the Wilmington postings. SB 313 took effect 1 August 2024. SB 21, signed 25 March 2025, put safe harbors around conflicted director, officer and controlling-stockholder transactions and narrowed books-and-records; the Delaware Supreme Court upheld those section 144 safe harbors on 27 February 2026 in Rutledge v. Clearway Energy Group LLC. Pending-by-17-February-2025 cases still exist. New controller and section 220 volume should fall for deals closed into the safe harbors. The 2–4 year Wilmington litigation posting that prefers a Chancery clerk is a 2026 product because of that mix shift, not because the statute vanished.
The Fifth Circuit vacated the SEC Private Fund Adviser Rule on 5 June 2024. That rule never went into effect. The 2024–2026 funds-regulatory build-out for quarterly fee reporting and side-letter limits did not happen, which is why the live funds posting is a 2–6 year transactional seat at $235,000–$390,000, not a disclosure-implementation army. 2026 funds associates are not implementing that vacated rule.
Supply into the lockstep tightened on the government side and loosened on the elite-JD side. The White House hiring freeze of 20 January 2025, and the honors-program revocations Reuters reported on 27 January 2025, show up in NALP’s Class of 2025 findings, published 5 August 2026: overall employment 92.8 percent; federal government jobs excluding clerkships down 37.0 percent, from nearly 1,100 Class of 2024 graduates to about 690; Federal Honors Program jobs 50, from 317. Median salary in firms of more than 500 lawyers: $225,000. Clerkships remain 10.0 percent of jobs (3,253), which is why the firm’s clerk bonus is still a 2026 talent tool. A company matching white-collar, antitrust or CFIUS laterals in 2026–2028 is buying from a thinner DOJ, SEC and FTC feeder. A company matching a first-year lockstep hire is buying from a fatter private-practice supply.
What the mandate files show when a company tries to match this firm.
A company matching this firm still sends a first offer that prices base and forgets the bonus. The files show it.
We have worked in the New York market for more than 10 years, for companies and firms, on associate seats in M&A, funds, finance, capital markets, tax, antitrust and litigation. Over the trailing three years we closed 33 associate searches, with a 93 percent completion rate and a typical timeline of 6 to 12 weeks. Median offer-to-acceptance is 11 working days. Counter-offer incidence on that New York associate line is 37 percent.
Of those 33 closed New York associate searches over three years, 12 required a second compensation conversation after the first offer priced only the 2023 base and omitted the special-bonus layer. That is not a flattering read of our own process. We did not stop the hiring committee putting a naked base on the table. We did catch it before the candidate walked. The files that skipped that second conversation were the ones where the general counsel had already budgeted year-end plus special as a combined number, the way the 20 November 2025 memo actually paid.
Six of the 33 ran past the 12-week outer bound because the company froze the band waiting for a Paul Weiss $235,000 match memo that was not on the public record through 31 August 2026. We cannot accelerate a search that is waiting on a document the matcher table does not show. The honest instruction to a chief legal officer is to decide the $10,000 first-year question in the brief, in writing, before the first approach.
Two composite mandates, same New York book
A public medical-device and diagnostics company opened a divisional vice president and associate general counsel seat for licensing and acquisitions — global M&A, licensing and strategic transactions, reporting to the chief legal officer. The first brief priced a 3–6 year lockstep M&A lawyer at $260,000, the bottom of the band the firm was then posting for New York M&A. The shortlist was a class-of-2021 associate whose last cash, on the November 2025 memo, was a $75,000 year-end plus a $20,000 special. The first offer omitted the special. We reopened compensation, put combined bonus on the letter, and the candidate signed on day 10, inside the 11-day New York median. Time-to-fill was nine weeks, inside the 6-to-12-week band. The incumbent firm did not counter.
An asset-management platform opened a general counsel search after a deputy-GC and head-of-legal at an alternative-credit manager. The board pack led with the 2026 PEP cell as proof the feeder was “busy.” The work was fund formation, M&A and investment transactions. We took PEP out of the offer logic, priced the seat against the funds laterals band the employer was then posting ($235,000–$390,000 at 2–6 years) plus the bonus layer, and ran the process as a company-side hire, not a partner lateral. The search closed in 11 weeks. Counter-offer incidence on the New York associate line is 37 percent; this file drew one, on day 8, and the candidate signed on day 12, a day past the median. Completion sat inside the 93 percent associate-line rate.
If the volume is still on the associate market rather than a general-counsel chair, the associate and attorney recruiting desk is the operational counterpart, and the in-house and general counsel practice is where the same talent lands on a corporate payroll. Neither replaces a board conversation that still thinks PEP is the offer.
Questions both readers ask before they treat PEP as the offer
What is the 2026 Paul Weiss partner salary figure?
The 2026 Am Law 100, published 15 April 2026, puts Paul Weiss profits per equity partner at $8.631 million. That cell is calendar-year 2025 distributable profit divided by equity-partner FTE, restated by Above the Law from the ALM ranking. It is not a paycheck, a draw or an in-house offer. A general counsel matching this firm still has to price the last public associate scale and the November 2025 bonus memo; those are the cash lines a company actually writes.
What is the Paul Weiss associate salary scale on the public record?
The last Paul Weiss-authored U.S. base scale on the public record is 29 November 2023: $225,000 for the class of 2023 through $435,000 for the class of 2016. The firm’s laterals page, accessed 11 September 2026, still posts U.S. associate bases in that $225,000–$435,000 band. Milbank moved the market to $235,000–$455,000 on 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026; Paul Weiss does not appear on Above the Law’s matcher table through 31 August 2026. Do not treat $235,000 as a Paul Weiss disclosure.
What was the Paul Weiss bonus for 2025?
A 20 November 2025 memo paid year-end plus special bonuses on 22 December 2025, combining to $21,000–$140,000 by class year. Above the Law’s 2025 bonus tracker records no hours floor. Business Insider prints class-of-2022 year-end as $57,500; Above the Law prints $57,000. Both prints are on the record. Additional discretionary amounts promised for early 2026 were not published as dollars. No 2026 midyear Paul Weiss bonus memo was on the public record in the research for this page.
Does Paul Weiss pay the 2026 $235,000 Milbank scale?
Not on the public record through 31 August 2026. Above the Law stated on 23 June 2026 that Paul Weiss had not announced a salary match, and the living summer scorecard still omitted the firm from the raises table through 31 August 2026. Legal Cheek’s firm page still describes newly qualified U.S. pay at $225,000. A later unpublished match is not a figure this page can print.
What should a general counsel budget to match a Paul Weiss associate?
Budget the last public base of $225,000–$435,000 plus the 2025 combined bonus of $21,000–$140,000. Add the clerk bonus the firm itself publishes — $125,000, or $150,000 after two or more years of clerkships — if you are hiring that credential off the lockstep. London NQ cash is a separate sterling line at £180,000 (Legal Cheek, 29 September 2025). Sartori’s New York associate desk runs 6 to 12 weeks, with a median 11 working days from offer to signature.
How fast do New York associate offers at this price actually close?
Sartori’s New York associate mandates close on a typical 6 to 12 week search, with a median 11 working days from offer to acceptance. Counter-offers appear in 37 percent of those files. Of 33 closed New York associate searches over three years, six ran past the 12-week outer bound because the company waited for a $235,000 Paul Weiss match memo that was not on the public record through 31 August 2026. Completion on the associate line sits at 93 percent.
Am Law 100 cells, the November 2025 bonus memo, and the laterals page.
Partner-pay cells are the 2026 Am Law 100 as restated by the legal press. Associate bases are the last firm memo and the careers page. Bonus figures are the 20 November 2025 memo as reported by two publications that disagree on one cell.
Rankings, firm memos, employer pages and the instruments that moved the cash
51 references- Sartori & Partners — New York Legal Talent Research Programme (1,675 structured interviews; ~67,000 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- The 2026 Am Law 100 Is Out, And Surprise: The Rich Law Firms Got Richer abovethelaw.com ↗
- Paul, Weiss (Legal Cheek Firms Most List) legalcheek.com ↗
- Another Top Biglaw Firm Makes Their Compensation Move abovethelaw.com ↗
- ALERT: Milbank Does It Again — Associate Salaries Are Going Up!!! abovethelaw.com ↗
- The Firm That Walked Out On Paul, Weiss Is Now Paying Associates More Than Paul, Weiss abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: The 2026 Summer Of Salary Increases abovethelaw.com ↗
- Here are the bonuses lawyers ended 2025 with at top US firms businessinsider.com ↗
- Paul, Weiss Comes Correct On Associate Bonuses abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: Biglaw’s 2025 Bonus Blitz abovethelaw.com ↗
- Despite Expectations, $225,000 Entry Associate Salaries Lag at Large Law Firms nalp.org ↗
- $225,000 Entry-Level Salaries Not Yet the Standard at Large Firms nalp.org ↗
- Money talks: What newly qualified solicitors earn at the UK’s top law firms legalcheek.com ↗
- About Paul, Weiss paulweiss.com ↗
- New York — Paul, Weiss paulweiss.com ↗
- London — Paul, Weiss paulweiss.com ↗
- Laterals & Judicial Clerks — Paul, Weiss paulweiss.com ↗
- 2L Summer Program — Paul, Weiss paulweiss.com ↗
- Paul, Weiss Announces New Partners paulweiss.com ↗
- Paul, Weiss Announces Election of New Partners paulweiss.com ↗
- Karp Ouster Tests Dealmaker Barshay’s Ability to Lead Paul Weiss news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- Bloomberg Law League Tables Unveil Top 20 M&A Law Firms in the Second Quarter pro.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- M&A lawyers see 'bulging pipeline' for 2026 after deal-crazed year reuters.com ↗
- Treasury Releases CFIUS Annual Report for 2025 home.treasury.gov ↗
- CFIUS Releases 2025 Annual Report Alongside Launch of Modernized Portal paulweiss.com ↗
- Addressing Risks From Paul Weiss (EO 14237) govinfo.gov ↗
- Addressing Remedial Action by Paul Weiss (EO 14244) whitehouse.gov ↗
- FTC Premerger Notification Program ftc.gov ↗
- New HSR thresholds and filing fees for 2026 ftc.gov ↗
- FOMC minutes, July 28–29, 2026 federalreserve.gov ↗
- January Commercial Chapter 11 Filings Increased 76 Percent over 2025 abi.org ↗
- Employment for the Class of 2025 — Selected Findings nalp.org ↗
- America First Investment Policy whitehouse.gov ↗
- Hiring Freeze whitehouse.gov ↗
- Qualifying work experience (SRA) sra.org.uk ↗
- The 25 Most Prestigious Law Firms In America (2026) — Original Jurisdiction davidlat.substack.com ↗
- Biglaw Salary Scale + Bonuses (1968 - 2026) biglawinvestor.com ↗
- Investment Funds — Paul, Weiss paulweiss.com ↗
- Separating the signal from the noise: M&A booms in early 2026 lseg.com ↗
- Global Markets Rankings – Full Year 2025 ionanalytics.com ↗
- Outbound Investment Security Program FAQs home.treasury.gov ↗
- 2025 Year in Review: National Security — Paul, Weiss paulweiss.com ↗
- Hart-Scott-Rodino and Clayton Act Section 8 Thresholds for 2026 paulweiss.com ↗
- FTC Finalizes Changes to Premerger Notification Form ftc.gov ↗
- Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of Amendments to Delaware General Corporation Law § 144 wilmerhale.com ↗
- Delaware Amendments Provide Safe Harbors for Interested D&O and Controller Transactions, and Restrict Books and Records Demands skadden.com ↗
- Important Delaware General Corporation Law Amendments Are Signed into Law amid Recent Delaware Chancery Court Decisions pillsburylaw.com ↗
- Fifth Circuit Vacates Private Fund Adviser Rule paulweiss.com ↗
- Trump withdraws order targeting Paul Weiss, says law firm promised free legal work reuters.com ↗
- Trump's hiring freeze leaves thousands of law students out in the cold reuters.com ↗
- Paul, Weiss Appoints Scott Barshay Chairman prnewswire.com ↗
Profits per equity partner and revenue per lawyer are 2026 Am Law 100 cells for calendar-year 2025, as restated by Above the Law on 15 April 2026. Gross revenue of $3.26 billion is the Legal Cheek restatement of the same year. Associate bases are the 29 November 2023 Paul Weiss memo as reported by Above the Law, and posted laterals bands on the firm careers page as accessed 11 September 2026. The $235,000-$455,000 ladder is the Milbank 2 June 2026 market move, not a Paul Weiss disclosure. Bonus figures are the 20 November 2025 memo as reported by Business Insider and Above the Law; the two sources differ by $500 on the class-of-2022 year-end cell. Mandate counts are Sartori New York associate telemetry.
Sartori & Partners runs a continuous research program over nearly 1.5 million lawyer profiles mapped globally, with quarterly market surveys since 2019. The New York findings on this page come from that program’s city book and from the mandate telemetry cited above. For the league reading of PEP, see partner pay at the Am Law top 50. For the company-side cash a chief legal officer already pays, see general counsel salary in 2026 and in-house counsel salary in 2026. The market-wide 2026 lockstep lives on a sibling page and is not restated here as this firm’s scale.
Adjacent cash maps for the same two readers.
PEP as a league statistic, what companies pay the general counsel who has to match lockstep talent, and the in-house search that actually runs the hire.
What partners really make at the Am Law top 50
PEP as a league statistic — what the ratio measures, what it hides, and why it is not a paycheck. Paul Weiss sits in that table as a row, not as this firm's associate and bonus grid.
Read the PEP benchmarkGeneral counsel and CLO salary 2026
What companies actually pay the person who has to match lockstep talent — by company size and stage, the in-house counterpart to this firm page.
Read the GC benchmarkIn-house and general counsel recruiting
How we run the company-side search when the brief is a lockstep M&A, funds or investigations hire onto a corporate payroll.
Explore in-house searchA quiet conversation
Matching this firm on your own payroll?
We run New York associate and in-house search for general counsel, chief legal officers and heads of legal who have to price this scale, and for the lawyers who earn it. Confidential, no obligation.