Salary · Named firm
Sidley Austin Salary 2026: Associate Scale, Bonus and Partner Pay
Three credential gates, not one lockstep: a U.S. class-year associate on the last firm-attributed $225,000–$445,000 grid, a London newly qualified solicitor at £175,000, and no public local-office discount. Then the dated bonus ladder and the $6 million PEP. For the lawyer who earns it and the general counsel who matches it.
Three gates. One query. Different cash.
The 2026 Sidley Austin salary conversation still prices a U.S. class year against a London NQ and a local-office recruiting model that is not a published pay cut. Sartori maps about 13,000 lawyers in Chicago.
| Seat / seniority | Cash as published | As-of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. class-year first-year (last Sidley-attributed) | $225,000 | 30 November 2023 memo for 2024 salaries | Above the Law |
| U.S. class-year ninth-year (standardized cell) | $445,000 | 30 November 2023 memo for 2024 salaries | Above the Law |
| London newly qualified solicitor | £175,000 | Still listed 2 September 2026 | Legal Cheek |
| London trainees (first / second year) | £60,000 / £65,000 | Still listed 2 September 2026 | Legal Cheek |
| U.S. market first-year (Milbank, not this firm) | $235,000 | Announced 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026 | Above the Law; Bloomberg Law |
| Texas / other U.S. offices | Same dollar grid | 30 November 2023 firmwide match | The Texas Lawbook |
| Hong Kong / Singapore associate scale | Not public | No primary cell | Omitted, not estimated |
The U.S. market first-year of $235,000 is Milbank’s June 2026 reset, effective 1 July 2026; it is on this table as a control, not as this firm’s number. London NQ is sterling after a two-year training contract. Texas sits on the same dollar grid; Asia associate bands were not in any primary page we opened.
Above the Law, on 30 November 2023, recorded Sidley matching a first-year base of $225,000 through a standardized ninth-year of $445,000. The Texas Lawbook the same day treated that match as U.S. firmwide, including Dallas and Houston. A bar-admission product. A dollar grid.
Four ways to misread the table: collapsing two seniorities, treating the July market reset as this firm’s number, converting London NQ into dollars without a dated source, and matching PEP onto an associate hire. Memos, rankings, careers pages.
- $3.738B
- 2025 gross revenue, Am Law 100 rank 6, up 8.68 percent — the 2025 fiscal year that paid the 2025 bonus match.
- Above the Law, 15 April 2026, 2026 Am Law 100 recap
- $6m
- 2025 firmwide profits per equity partner as a rounded Legal Business headline — a pool, not a partner W-2.
- Legal Business, 13 April 2026
- 52
- Partners elected 1 June 2026, the first summer round after the nonequity rung — versus 29 in 2025 and 38 in 2024.
- Sidley press release, 1 June 2026; Above the Law, 2 June 2026
- 21
- Offices on the 2026 locations page, Chicago HQ at One South Dearborn, London at 70 St Mary Axe.
- Sidley locations page, accessed 11 September 2026
Those four figures are the platform, not the paycheck. They sit behind the class-year ladder; they are not a 2026 salary cell.
Three gates. One query. Different cash.
The last published Sidley Austin salary grid
The dated U.S. table is older than the search query. Bases below are the last firm-attributed lockstep; the bonus column is Sidley's own 2024 class-year grid. They are two instruments, not a 2026 all-in package.
Above the Law, on 30 November 2023, published Sidley’s associate memo matching the then-Cravath scale for 2024 salaries: class of 2023 at $225,000, then $235,000, $260,000, $310,000, $365,000, $390,000, $420,000, $435,000, and a standardized ninth-year of $445,000 for the class of 2015. Sidley was the first matcher in that cycle to print a ninth-year cell rather than taking seniors off-grid. The Texas Lawbook, that same day, reported the firm informing associates it was matching Cravath and described its bonuses as “Cravath-plus.”
NALP’s U.S. Associate Salary Survey as of 1 January 2025, released 28 May 2025 from 437 responding offices, put the median first-year base at $200,000 overall and $215,000 in firms of 701 or more lawyers, with $225,000 the modal reported figure (32 percent of all offices; 44.7 percent of offices in firms of 701+). Six of 19 reported cities had a $225,000 median: Austin, Boston, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and the Washington, DC area. Chicago is not among them. NALP’s June 2025 Bulletin found 42.9 percent of 14 reporting Chicago offices paid $225,000 first-year. The Midwest regional median sat at $180,000. Sidley’s last public U.S. floor sits on the national mode, not on a Chicago city median.
| Class year (2023 memo) | Seniority then | Last attributed base | 2024 bonus (year-end + special) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2023 | Then 1st year | $225,000 | $20,000 + $6,000 |
| Class of 2022 | Then 2nd year | $235,000 | $30,000 + $10,000 |
| Class of 2021 | Then 3rd year | $260,000 | $57,500 + $15,000 |
| Class of 2020 | Then 4th year | $310,000 | $75,000 + $20,000 |
| Class of 2019 | Then 5th year | $365,000 | $90,000 + $25,000 |
| Class of 2018 | Then 6th year | $390,000 | $105,000 + $25,000 |
| Class of 2017 | Then 7th year | $420,000 | $115,000 + $25,000 |
| Class of 2016 | Then 8th year | $435,000 | $115,000 + $25,000 |
| Class of 2015 | Then 9th year | $445,000 | Not in the 2024 table |
Bases: Above the Law, 30 November 2023. 2024 bonuses: Above the Law, 25 November 2024, 2,000 qualifying hours. The ninth-year base has no matching 2024 bonus cell in that table. Associates were described as “moving up the existing compensation scale,” which is why this page does not relabel the 2023 class years as 2026.
The 2025 bonus is a later instrument. Above the Law, on 2 December 2025, recorded Sidley matching “the Cravath scale, complete with Milbank’s summer bonuses,” for associates who met a 2,000-hour requirement, paid prior to 31 December 2025. The live 2025 bonus scorecard lists the match on 1 December 2025, with a junior endpoint of Class of 2024 at $15,000 / $6,000 and a senior endpoint of Class of 2017 at $115,000 / $25,000. Associates below the hours gate “may be recognized with partial bonuses.” Associates with higher productivity and/or exceptional performance can receive more than 50 percent above the class-year base bonus. Cravath’s 18 November 2025 memorandum is the market document those bonuses follow; Cravath applied no hours gate. Mid-class 2025 cells were not reproduced in the 2 December article body and are not estimated here.
What the last memo printsWhat it will not print
- Class-year base Lockstep by law-school class, same published dollar grid in Chicago, New York, Texas and the other U.S. offices named in that cycle. This is the number a general counsel can screenshot.
- Hours-gated year-end bonus Eligible at 2,000 hours, with partials below the gate and a productivity kicker above the class-year cell. Cravath, the market setter Sidley said it matched, does not use that hours screen.
- Partner economics Profits per equity partner is a firm ratio, not an associate cell and not a W-2. It does not belong on an offer that is filling a class-year seat.
London NQ cash is a different product. Local office is not a discount.
The UK careers page is a qualification-seat price. Texas and the other U.S. offices sit on the same dollar grid as Chicago; they change the on-ramp, not a published base.
Legal Cheek, on 14 June 2024, recorded Sidley raising London newly qualified salaries from £166,500 to £175,000 effective 1 July 2024, with first-year trainees moving from £55,000 to £60,000 and second-year trainees from £60,000 to £65,000. Legal Cheek’s 29 September 2025 NQ table still listed Sidley at £175,000, in a cluster with Goodwin, King & Spalding, Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case. Magic Circle remained at £150,000. Eighteen U.S. outfits in London then paid NQs more than £170,000. Average NQ across 100-plus Firms Most List firms sat at £118,756. Legal Cheek, on 2 September 2026, still had trainee salaries at £60,000 / £65,000 and NQ at £175,000, with up to 19 London trainees a year, recruited exclusively through vacation schemes.
The London careers page, accessed 11 September 2026, matches those cells: PGDL grant £20,000, SQE grant £20,000, course fees paid, “Annual target hours: No targets,” 19 training contracts, six four-month seats including a compulsory AI Knowledge Lab after the first two practice seats. Eligibility is a penultimate- or final-year law undergraduate, a final-year non-law undergraduate, or a graduate. The Solicitors Regulation Authority SQE route, current on the SRA page as of August 2025, requires a degree or level-6 equivalent, SQE1 and SQE2, two years’ qualifying work experience, and suitability checks. That is a solicitor clock, not a U.S. class year, and this page does not convert £175,000 into dollars.
Legal Cheek’s firm profile, accessed 11 September 2026, puts London at 70 St Mary Axe as a base for around 200 lawyers. Legal Business, on 13 April 2026, put 2025 London revenue at $299 million, up 32 percent from $226.7 million in 2024. Global Legal Post, on 12 May 2025, put the office just north of 50 partners after a private-funds trio, and wrote that finance lawyer headcount had doubled the prior year. Law.com International, on 2 July 2026, recorded the 29th London lateral partner in three years and 15 internal promotions over the same window. ICLG, on 6 July 2026, quoted the London managing partner: the firm now advises more than 80 percent of its top 50 firm clients in London. The £175,000 NQ cell is the sterling price of that client-coverage strategy.
Local-office scale, on the U.S. side, is a recruiting-model difference. The October 2025 summer-application overview puts Dallas and Houston on combined 2027 2L and 2026 1L offers, with a $15,000 signing bonus if both are accepted; several other offices offer combined 2L with limited 1L; Greater Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington, D.C. were 2027 2L only. The 13 January 2026 Professional Pathways announcement states that Texas offices follow a different recruiting model. None of those pages states a lower base. Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Munich, Brussels and Geneva appear as offices; no primary Sidley, Legal Cheek, ALM or NALP page we opened states a Sidley Asia NQ. That cell is omitted.
U.S. class-year clockLondon NQ clock
- J.D. then lockstep ABA-approved degree, office-jurisdiction bar, Suited assessment under New York City Local Law 144, then a class year the U.S. payroll already knows how to pay.
- Vacation scheme, then two years No direct training-contract hire. Six four-month seats, compulsory AI Lab, SQE and qualifying work experience before NQ cash, with no published hours target.
- Local on-ramp, same dollars Texas combined 1L/2L offers and a different Pathways rule. Same published U.S. base. An Asia band we cannot print.
What a general counsel actually matches.
The lawyer who earns the figure sits on an Am Law 6 partnership payroll. The company that pays to hire them sits in-house at the buyers of that platform: sponsors, insurers, funds, energy developers and life-sciences issuers.
The paying employer for the lockstep is Sidley Austin LLP: Chicago-headquartered, 21 offices, approximately 2,300 lawyers on the About page accessed 11 September 2026. Chambers USA 2026, in firm-provided content, states 2,300 lawyers, 650 partners, 21 offices. The associate, trainee, NQ, counsel and partner seats that carry the published scale sit inside this partnership, not inside a corporate legal department. The general counsel who “pays” the figure is matching it when raiding or retaining that product.
Buyers of the work, from the firm’s own practice pages accessed 11 September 2026: private equity and other financial sponsors on leveraged buyouts, growth equity, fund formation and special situations; more than 70 insurance lawyers devoted to insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, private equity firms, banks and regulatory agencies; approximately 150 investment-funds lawyers across New York, Chicago, London, Boston, Palo Alto, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Singapore, Dallas, Houston and Washington, D.C.; more than 140 energy lawyers in 15 offices facing FERC, the CFTC and federal courts; a food, drug and medical device desk that names clients from startups to Fortune 10, with particular focus on novel therapies, digital health, and cell and gene therapy, across FDA, EMA, China’s NMPA, UK MHRA, Swissmedic, CMS and DOJ. Those are the capital allocators whose mandates fund associate hours. They are also the in-house employers who later hire the same people as general counsel, chief legal officer, associate general counsel or VP Legal.
Across 118 in-house general counsel, chief legal officers and heads of legal inside the Chicago interview cohort, over a 24-month window, 71 said they budget a Sidley-trained mid-level off the last published U.S. class-year floor they can print, not against the June 2026 market reset. A general counsel at a private-equity-backed national insurance administrator told us they would print a last-published mid-level cell plus the hours-gated bonus, and they would not match the ninth-year $445,000 cell for an associate-general-counsel seat. A chief legal officer at a development-stage gene-therapy issuer said the London £175,000 NQ was the number they used when the hire needed SRA qualification, and they would not convert it.
NALP overall first-year median
U.S. Associate Salary Survey as of 1 January 2025, 437 responding offices. Context for where $225,000 sat nationally, not a Sidley cell.
NALP press release, 28 May 2025 ↗Your job is to put a number on a requisition that will survive a compensation committee and a lockstep counter-offer.
- Print the last memo. The U.S. scale last attributed to this firm is the November 2023 grid. Do not brief the board on the Milbank $235,000 floor as if this employer had matched it.
- Add last year’s bonus. Where the 1 December 2025 endpoints are public, add them. Where mid-class 2025 cells were not reprinted, say so rather than interpolating from 2024.
- Name the hours gate. Sidley’s 2,000-hour screen is part of how that cash was earned. An in-house seat will not replicate the gate; it should still see the dollars.
- Split Chicago from London. A dual-qualified corporate counsel priced on £175,000 is not a U.S. first-year priced on $225,000. The clocks are different and the tax treatment is different.
- Keep PEP off the associate offer. The $6 million rounded headline is a firm ratio. It is useful when you are hiring a partner. It is a category error on an AGC band.
Your last published number is real. The 2026 U.S. base is not, and an in-house offer that copies only the floor is not matching you.
- Screenshot the 2023 memo. Class year, base, the ninth-year cell. That is what a company can verify without a rumor.
- Carry the hours gate separately. The 2,000-hour requirement and the 50 percent kicker are part of 2025 cash. An in-house seat will not replicate them; it should still see the stack.
- London NQ is a different product. Two years of seats, SQE, about 19 starts, no published hours target. Do not let a U.S. first-year comparison erase that.
- Partner pay is not your next paycheck. Income-partner cash after June 2026 is not public. A conversation that starts at PEP is not about your class year.
- Ask who signs the band. A general counsel who can move an AGC number is a different buyer from a compensation committee that has frozen legal at last year’s first-year floor.
Match the last published bonus, not a July floor this firm has not printed.
Sidley Austin PEP is a pool. Income-partner cash is not public.
The query for partner salary lands on profits per equity partner. That ratio funds the lockstep. It is not a W-2, and the new nonequity rung has no public dollar band.
Above the Law, on 15 April 2026, summarizing the 2026 Am Law 100 (2025 results), put Sidley at No. 6 by gross revenue at $3.738 billion, up 8.68 percent. The American Lawyer, on 9 April 2026, wrote that revenue grew about 9 percent to roughly $3.74 billion, with leaders citing a second-half surge in transactions plus strength in litigation, energy and infrastructure, and capital markets. This page uses Above the Law’s $3.738 billion as the ranking figure and does not average it with other recaps.
Legal Business, on 13 April 2026, headlined that firmwide PEP hits $6 million. Law.com’s 9 April 2026 title said PEP soared 16 percent and did not print a 2025 dollar PEP in the free lede. The 2024 ALM profits-per-equity-partner figure, via the 2025 Global 100 compilation, was $5,157,000, alongside 2024 gross revenue of $3,439,646,000, 1,979 lawyers and revenue per lawyer of $1,738,000. Above the Law’s 2 December 2025 bonus article independently cites that same $3,439,646,000 2024 gross. This page does not compute a false-precise 2025 PEP from 16 percent of $5,157,000, and it does not use a conflicting prior-year PEP that cannot be reconciled with ALM.
The partnership pay gate changed shape in 2026. Above the Law, on 12 March 2026, reported that Sidley notified lawyers of a new income-partner tier. Law.com, on 9 April 2026, wrote that starting in June, income partners will not have equity, and that associates become eligible for income-partner status a year earlier. Sidley, on 1 June 2026, elected 52 newly elected partners effective that day. Above the Law, on 2 June 2026, put that class against 29 in 2025 and 38 in 2024, described it as the firm’s largest recent class and the first and only summer partnership round, and tied it to the new nonequity track. Cash for nonequity versus equity in that class is not disclosed. Seventh-to-ninth-year U.S. associates and London senior associates in 2026 face an extra rung before equity PEP. That is structure. It is not a salary cell.
Practice labels in the 1 June 2026 release, counted as seats not names: M&A, private equity, emerging companies, global finance, capital markets, investment funds, energy and infrastructure, restructuring, commercial litigation, white collar, appellate, regulatory litigation, tax, insurance, employee benefits, product liability, IP litigation, labor and employment, privacy and cybersecurity, securities enforcement, antitrust, FDA / food, drug and medical device, and real estate. Offices in the class included Boston, Century City, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. That is the promotion-side demand map for the nonequity and equity pay gate, not an associate-class hiring table.
The 2025–26 cycle that makes this payroll cash-flowable.
Class-year cash is a talent price. The demand underneath it is announced U.S. M&A, a rare hours rebound, merger-control staffing, Medicare negotiation, and long-term transmission filings.
SIFMA’s Capital Markets Fact Book, 2026 edition, put 2025 announced U.S. M&A at $2.6 trillion, up 58.0 percent year on year, and completed M&A at $1.8 trillion, up 30.7 percent. U.S. equity issuance excluding SPACs was $232.6 billion, up 4.3 percent; IPO deal value $47.0 billion, up 50.0 percent; follow-ons $154.6 billion, down 8.9 percent; U.S. corporate bond issuance $2.2 trillion, up 12.5 percent; ABS issuance $517.4 billion, up 33.3 percent. Those are market volumes, not Sidley fee shares. They are the cycle under Law.com’s 9 April 2026 account of a second-half 2025 surge in transactions plus capital markets.
Bloomberg Law, on 17 August 2026, reported Citi’s law-firm group at 4.2 percent growth in billable hours in the first half of 2026 versus the first half of 2025, against a long-term average of 1.5 to 2 percent. Industry revenue was up 11.7 percent; expenses up 9.7 percent; compensation expense up 8.9 percent; overhead up 10.5 percent. Transactional practices handling both megadeals and middle-market M&A drove the increase. AI spend was 0.25 percent of revenue at end-2025, up from 0.11 percent at end-2024; billable hours still rose. Inventory of uncollected bills was up 16.7 percent. ABA Journal, on 18 August 2026, named large-cap and middle-market M&A plus industrials, healthcare and technology as primary drivers. That is why a $225,000 lockstep and a 2,000-hour bonus gate were economically live in the same season a $235,000 market floor appeared.
Merger-clearance intensity moved twice. The FTC Premerger Notification Office, on 19 March 2026, stated that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had denied a stay; the Eastern District of Texas judgment vacating the 2025 HSR form (Chamber of Commerce v. FTC, 12 February 2026) was effective immediately, and the agencies would accept the form in place before 10 February 2025. Staff had reviewed more than 3,000 filings while the Updated Form was in place. The FY 2025 HSR Annual Report recorded 2,006 transactions, 31.8 percent valued over $1 billion, aggregate reported value $2.5 trillion; the FTC issued 20 Second Requests and DOJ 21. Cleary Gottlieb, on 13 February 2026, recited the FTC’s own estimates that average prep time had moved from 37 to 105 hours with about $139 million incremental annual cost. Those hours and dollars are FTC estimates, not billed hours at this firm. Junior antitrust intensity per deal fell after 19 March 2026; FY 2025 filing value still supports a merger-clearance headcount. Sidley’s June 2026 partner class included a Washington, D.C. antitrust seat.
Two other desks that produced 2026 partners sit on dated statutes. CMS’s 15 March 2023 initial memorandum implements Inflation Reduction Act Medicare negotiation by program instruction, with maximum fair price for the first 10 Part D drugs in 2026. CRS product R47872, accessed 11 September 2026, records 10 drugs for 2026, 15 for 2027 and 2028, 20 thereafter, and biologics generally negotiation-eligible 11 years after FDA licensure. FERC Order No. 1920 issued 13 May 2024, with 1920-A on 21 November 2024 and 1920-B on 11 April 2025, requiring 20-year-horizon Long-Term Regional Transmission Planning. A 9 June 2026 Federal Register notice records PJM transmission owners seeking extension to 11 August 2026 for their portion of the regional compliance filing. The Fifth Circuit, on 5 June 2024, vacated the SEC private-fund adviser rules in full. Reuters, on 5 June 2024, cited industry AUM of $26.6 trillion (2022). Sidley’s 6 June 2024 alert expected the Commission to pursue the same topics via examination and enforcement. Funds associates did not lose a desk; they lost a compliance-date build.
London funds regulatory work has a 2026 consultation clock of its own. The FCA’s CP26/28, first published 14 July 2026 and updated 28 August 2026, consults on a three-tier UK AIFM regime; implementation is currently envisaged in 2028. That is London investment-funds regulatory demand through 2028, not a U.S. class-year cell, and it is why the £175,000 NQ sits next to a funds bench the firm has been hiring into since 2025.
How the match actually closes in Chicago.
Sartori & Partners has worked the Chicago associate market for 8 years. Over the trailing three years we closed 26 associate searches, 93 percent of files completed, on a typical 6-to-12-week timeline.
Inside that Chicago associate mandate book, 14 of the 26 closed files over three years were company-side searches — a general counsel, chief legal officer or head of legal hiring a Sidley-trained associate into an in-house seat. Eight were firm-side associate laterals into Chicago transactional desks. Four were London-qualified or dual-qualified seats. Of those 14 company files, 9 closed inside the 6-to-12-week window. Five ran past it because the company had loaded Milbank’s $235,000 first-year into a Sidley-alumnus offer. We still closed them. They are not closes we would sell as a model. The brief was wrong on day one, and the compensation committee had to re-clear a number the last published memo did not support.
Counter-offer incidence on the Chicago associate line is 35 percent across the 26 closed searches. That city figure is not evenly spread. Of the 14 company-side files, 7 drew a lockstep-firm counter; of the 8 firm-side laterals, 2 did; of the 4 London or dual-qualified files, none did. Nine counters on 26 files is the city line. The company hires are where the defending firm still has a class-year machine to fire, and where the 2,000-hour bonus kicker is a retention tool a general counsel has to see. Median offer-to-acceptance on the Chicago associate line is 11 working days. Firm-side laterals sat on that line. In-house matches were the slow ones, and they were slow for reasons the candidate did not control.
Of 86 Chicago associates sitting on an Am Law lockstep in that same 24-month interview window, 49 said they would not accept an in-house offer that matched base and dropped the hours-gated bonus. That is the candidate-side version of the same finding: the last published floor is not the all-in number, and a company that treats it as all-in will watch the process reopen.
Two recruiting-side cash items sit on top of the scale and are not a substitute for it. Sidley, on 13 January 2026, announced a $50,000 Professional Pathways Signing Bonus for eligible students who accept a 2027 2L summer offer and spend the 1L summer in qualifying public service. The Built to Succeed Scholarship page, accessed 11 September 2026, states $50,000 to selected summer associates, $25,000 on joining as 2L summer and $25,000 after joining as a full-time associate. Combined 1L/2L offers carry a $15,000 bonus if both are accepted. None of those cells replaces the class-year base.
Figures this page will not invent: a 2026 Sidley U.S. base at $235,000; a 2026 year-end bonus; income-partner salary bands; a Hong Kong or Singapore NQ; a Sidley summer weekly rate; a dollar conversion of £175,000; an associate/counsel split inside the 2,300-lawyer self-report. The 2026 self-report of approximately 2,300 lawyers and the 2024 ALM count of 1,979 are a definition and date gap, not a rounding of one series. Chicago occupancy of more than 1,500 attorneys and business professionals, announced 16 June 2026 for a late-2030 move to 725 Randolph, is a combined workforce, not a lawyer headcount and not a local salary discount.
A general counsel hiring from this platform is hiring out of M&A, private equity, global finance, funds, insurance, energy, FDA and the litigation and investigations desks that produced the June 2026 partner class, not out of a generic BigLaw associate pool. Our in-house and general counsel recruiting desk runs the company-side brief; associate recruiting runs the firm-side one. Companies building the legal function from nothing should start with the first general counsel guide before they try to match a class-year number.
Sidley compensation in 2026: questions we are asked
What is Sidley Austin salary for a U.S. first-year associate in 2026?
The last Sidley-attributed U.S. first-year base is $225,000, published by Above the Law on 30 November 2023. That memo matched the then-Cravath lockstep through a standardized ninth-year cell of $445,000. The Texas Lawbook, the same day, recorded the match as a U.S. firmwide event, including Texas seats. A 2026 Sidley U.S. base at Milbank’s $235,000 floor is not on Above the Law’s matcher table through 31 August 2026. Treat $225,000 as the last firm-named U.S. floor, not as a confirmed post-July 2026 memo.
What does a Sidley newly qualified solicitor earn in London in 2026?
London newly qualified solicitors at Sidley earn £175,000, still listed by Legal Cheek on 2 September 2026. First-year trainees sit at £60,000 and second-year trainees at £65,000. The sterling NQ has been current since 1 July 2024, when Legal Cheek recorded the rise from £166,500. It is an SRA product after a two-year training contract and the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, not a dollar class year, and this page does not convert it.
Did Sidley match the $235,000 Milbank scale in 2026?
No. Sidley is absent from Above the Law’s 2026 matcher table through 31 August 2026. Milbank announced $235,000 to $455,000 on 2 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026. Bloomberg Law, on 17 June 2026, named early Am Law 100 matchers — Milbank, McDermott Will & Schulte, Quinn Emanuel, Katten Muchin, Susman Godfrey — and Sidley is not in that set. The market-wide lockstep lives on our 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale; this page does not reprint it as Sidley’s number.
What is Sidley Austin PEP, and is that a partner salary?
Legal Business, on 13 April 2026, put 2025 firmwide PEP at $6 million, a rounded headline, not a W-2. Law.com, on 9 April 2026, reported PEP up 16 percent without printing a 2025 dollar PEP in the free lede. The 2024 ALM figure was $5,157,000. Partner “salary” as a paycheck is not public. Income-partner cash after the June 2026 nonequity rung is not public either. The PEP league belongs to partner pay at the Am Law top 50.
How should a general counsel match Sidley associate pay on an in-house offer?
Print the last published class-year base plus the last public bonus; do not load the $235,000 Milbank floor. A U.S. alumnus is a JD class-year product with a 2,000-hour bonus gate. A London solicitor is a £175,000 NQ with no published hours target. Of 14 company-side Chicago associate searches Sartori closed over three years, 5 ran past the 6-to-12-week window because the company had briefed the July 2026 market floor as if it were this firm’s published number.
What Sidley Austin bonus was paid in 2025, and is a 2026 bonus public?
Sidley matched the Cravath/Milbank 2025 bonus scale on 1 December 2025, gated at 2,000 hours, paid before 31 December 2025. Above the Law’s tracker printed a junior endpoint of $15,000 plus $6,000 for the class of 2024 and a senior endpoint of $115,000 plus $25,000 for the class of 2017. Associates below 2,000 hours “may be recognized with partial bonuses”; higher productivity can receive more than 50 percent above the class-year base bonus. A 2026 year-end bonus is not public. The last complete Sidley-attributed class-year bonus grid is the 25 November 2024 table.
Memos, Am Law recaps, and the instruments that price the work.
U.S. cash comes from the last Sidley-attributed memo in the legal press. London cash comes from Legal Cheek and the firm careers page. Bonus cells come from the last public match. Partner economics come from ALM recaps and a rounded Legal Business headline.
Sources and further reading
57 references- Sartori & Partners — Chicago Legal Talent Research Programme (325 structured interviews; ~13,000 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- Sidley Enters The Associate Compensation Fray abovethelaw.com ↗
- V&E, Sidley, McDermott, Norton Rose Fulbright Match Cravath Salary Bump, Bonuses texaslawbook.net ↗
- MEMORANDUM FOR ALL LAWYERS, November 18, 2025, Year-End Bonuses & 2026 Base Salaries abovethelaw.com ↗
- Cravath Starts Biglaw’s Bonus Season With Year-End And Special Bonuses! abovethelaw.com ↗
- Top 10 Biglaw Firm Hands Out Associate Bonuses — With Even More Money For Top Performers abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: Biglaw’s 2025 Bonus Blitz abovethelaw.com ↗
- Top 10 Biglaw Firm Gets On Board With Year-End And Special Bonuses abovethelaw.com ↗
- BigLaw firms pile on bonus bandwagon led by Milbank, and some offer more to top associates abajournal.com ↗
- ALERT: Milbank Does It Again — Associate Salaries Are Going Up!!! abovethelaw.com ↗
- Latest Associate Pay Raises Reflect Start of ‘Prestige Law’ Era news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: The 2026 Summer Of Salary Increases abovethelaw.com ↗
- Sidley increases NQ associate salaries to £175,000 in London legalcheek.com ↗
- Money talks: What newly qualified solicitors earn at the UK’s top law firms legalcheek.com ↗
- Sidley adds AI seat in training contract shake-up legalcheek.com ↗
- Sidley Austin — Legal Cheek firm profile legalcheek.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 ↗
- The 2026 Am Law 100 Is Out, And Surprise: The Rich Law Firms Got Richer abovethelaw.com ↗
- Sidley's Revenue Grows By 9%, as PEP Soars 16%, Amid Focus on Laterals and Balanced Portfolio law.com ↗
- Sidley London revenue jumps by a third as firmwide PEP hits $6m legalbusiness.co.uk ↗
- List of largest law firms by revenue en.wikipedia.org ↗
- Top Biglaw Firm Debuts Nonequity Partnership Tier, Moving Goalposts Just A Bit Further abovethelaw.com ↗
- Sidley Elects New Partnership Class of 52 sidley.com ↗
- Sidley’s Partnership Promotions Are Off The Charts Thanks To The Firm’s Brand New Nonequity Tier abovethelaw.com ↗
- About Sidley sidley.com ↗
- Locations — Sidley Austin sidley.com ↗
- Sidley Austin LLP, USA 2026 — Chambers chambers.com ↗
- Sidley Announces Chicago Office Relocation to 725 Randolph in Fulton Market sidley.com ↗
- Sidley Introduces the Professional Pathways Signing Bonus for 2027 2L Summer Associates sidley.com ↗
- Built to Succeed® Scholarship sidley.com ↗
- SUMMER AT SIDLEY APPLICATION OVERVIEW sidley.com ↗
- London Opportunities | Europe | Sidley Careers sidleycareers.com ↗
- Apply Here | North America | Sidley Careers sidleycareers.com ↗
- Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) route sra.org.uk ↗
- Private Equity — Sidley sidley.com ↗
- Insurance — Sidley sidley.com ↗
- Investment Funds — Sidley sidley.com ↗
- Energy — Sidley sidley.com ↗
- Food, Drug and Medical Device — Sidley sidley.com ↗
- Sidley unveils triple partner raid on Weil in London private funds push globallegalpost.com ↗
- Sidley Makes 29th London Lateral Hire in 3 Years with DLA Partner law.com ↗
- Sidley strengthens M&A practice with new hire iclg.com ↗
- Capital Markets Fact Book: 2026 Edition sifma.org ↗
- Big Law Demand Soars on M&A Revival as AI Drives Up Expenses news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- BigLaw firms see uptick in demand, expenses, new report shows abajournal.com ↗
- National Association of Private Fund Managers v. SEC, No. 23-60471 ca5.uscourts.gov ↗
- Hart-Scott-Rodino Annual Report Fiscal Year 2025 ftc.gov ↗
- Premerger Notification Program — FTC PNO notices ftc.gov ↗
- U.S. District Court Vacates FTC’s 2024 HSR Filing Rule clearygottlieb.com ↗
- Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program: Initial Memorandum … Year 2026 cms.gov ↗
- Explainer on the Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation Final Rule ferc.gov ↗
- Notice of Motion for Extension of Time To Comply federalregister.gov ↗
- US appeals court strikes down SEC private equity, hedge fund oversight rule reuters.com ↗
- U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Vacates Private Funds Rules: What’s Next? sidley.com ↗
- Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Under the Inflation Reduction Act congress.gov ↗
- CP26/28: The UK AIFM Regime fca.org.uk ↗
U.S. bases measure the last attributed lockstep, not all-in cash and not a confirmed post-July 2026 memo. London NQ is employer sterling plus an unpublished discretionary bonus. 2025 PEP is a rounded press headline; 2024 PEP is the ALM figure. 2024 lawyer headcount and the 2026 self-report are different vintages. SIFMA volumes are market volumes, not Sidley fee shares. FTC HSR hours and dollars are agency estimates as reported by Cleary.
Our own numbers — the Chicago interview cohort, the associate mandate telemetry, the counter-offer incidence and the offer-to-acceptance window — come from the continuous research program described on our research page. Quarterly market surveys have run since 2019. The global mapping frame: nearly 1.5 million lawyer profiles.
Adjacent benchmarks for the same two readers.
BigLaw associate salary scale 2026
The market lockstep this firm has not joined on the public matcher list — Milbank's $235,000–$455,000 ladder, effective 1 July 2026.
Read the market scaleGeneral counsel and CLO salary 2026
The in-house cash a company actually puts on a chief legal officer — the other side of matching this class-year number.
Read the GC benchmarkIn-house and general counsel recruiting
How we brief, map and close corporate legal seats when the offer has to clear a published lockstep number.
See the in-house deskA quiet conversation
Matching this cash on an in-house offer?
We brief general counsel, chief legal officers and heads of legal on what a published lockstep number actually costs to hire, and we run the search when the band is real. Confidential, no obligation.