Trusts-and-estates pay in 2026: law firm versus in-house.

The American Lawyer reported on 2 June 2026 that Milbank increased associate salaries by $10,000 to $20,000 and that McDermott Will & Schulte confirmed a match the same day. A follow-on American Lawyer piece dated 21 August 2026 states that Milbank announced in June a first-year base of $235,000. A 4 June 2026 American Lawyer article adds that the raise was the first since 2023 and that Hueston Hennigan also matched. That is the panel-side wage a general counsel pays when the private-client file sits at a matching firm. It is not a trusts-and-estates practice premium. A first-year on a Form 706 and a first-year on a credit-fund deal draw the same base.

The last full published class-year ladder is older. ABA Journal, on 19 November 2025, reported that Cravath year-end bonuses ran $15,000 to $115,000 by class year plus special bonuses of $6,000 to $25,000, and that “Base salaries for associates will remain the same at Cravath in 2026,” listing class of 2025 at $225,000, 2024 at $235,000, 2023 at $260,000, 2022 at $310,000, 2021 at $365,000, 2020 at $390,000, and 2019 at $420,000. Several named Am Law firms matched the bonus scale. This page does not reconstruct a post-Milbank eight-rung grid from a first-year figure and a $10,000-to-$20,000 range. The November 2025 Cravath grid is the last complete ladder in the sources; the June 2026 first-year is the current matching-firm floor.

In-house, the only dated title series is corporate, not private-client. The Association of Corporate Counsel and Empsight International 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey Executive Summary, covering 1,632 US respondents, reports median base and median total cash of $148,000 / $160,000 at Attorney, $201,000 / $228,000 at Senior Attorney, $227,000 / $260,000 at Expert Attorney, $239,000 / $283,000 at Managing Attorney, $245,000 / $294,000 at Associate General Counsel, $280,000 / $368,000 at Deputy General Counsel, and $279,000 / $341,000 at General Counsel / Chief Legal Officer. Long-term incentive eligibility at CLO is 63 percent, with median total target direct compensation of $503,000. CLOs at organizations with $5 billion-plus revenue earn 44 percent more median base and 173 percent more total target compensation than CLOs at organizations under $1 billion. Prior law-firm experience added 16 percent to median base and 18 percent to total cash at Attorney level. Empsight is a human-resource compensation consultancy, not a search firm. None of those rows is a family-office trusts-and-estates wage.

Nationally, the Occupational Outlook Handbook page for lawyers, aligned to May 2024 pay, states a median annual wage of $151,160; the lowest 10 percent earned less than $72,780 and the highest 10 percent more than $239,200. Industry medians in May 2024: federal government $174,680; legal services $143,470; local government $125,180; state government $111,280. Lawyers held about 864,800 jobs in 2024 on the Employment Projections concept, which includes the self-employed; legal services employed 51 percent, self-employed 12 percent, local government 8 percent, state government 6 percent, federal government 5 percent. Projected 2024–34 growth is 4 percent, about 35,900 jobs, with about 31,500 openings a year. The credential line in the same document is the public statistical statement of the gate: lawyers typically need a law degree and a state license, usually from passing a bar examination. It still does not isolate trusts and estates.

Sources: The American Lawyer (2 June, 4 June, and 21 August 2026); ABA Journal (19 November 2025); ACC / Empsight 2025; BLS OEWS May 2025 and Occupational Outlook Handbook May 2024; Rev. Proc. 2025-32; New York Tax Department; Massachusetts DOR. See the source list.

Across 1,675 structured interviews with New York partners and counsel, 71 of the 94 family-office general counsel and trust-bank fiduciary counsel over a 24-month window named a live Form 706, Surrogate’s Court, or state-tax docket — not a job-title average — as the credential that actually prices the seat. A family-office general counsel at a single-family office told us they “do not pay a job-title average; they pay a Form 706.” A head of legal at a national trust bank said they budget the lockstep as the opportunity cost of leaving fiduciary counsel empty, because the outside private-client firm bills the docket while the seat sits open.

Of 33 closed New York associate searches over three years, 9 were trusts-and-estates, private-client, or family-office in-house seats. Four of those 9 required a restated brief after the first shortlist came back as general tax or corporate associates without a transfer-tax docket. That is the finding that does not flatter the method. We still close the file. We close it later, and the family office pays the panel while we do. On the same 9 files, seven produced an offer; four of those seven drew a counter-offer, against the 37 percent New York associate-line rate. Median offer-to-acceptance on the line is 11 working days. The counters did not move the window. They moved the first-offer conversation.

Two anonymized composites from that book, described by category only. A single-family office opened a private general-counsel seat after a first death in a New York-domiciled family with Massachusetts real property. The first shortlist, assembled against an “estate planning” brief, came back as corporate tax associates. The search was restated against Form 706, New York ET-706, and Surrogate’s Court administration. Time-to-fill landed at 11 weeks, the long end of the 6-to-12-week band. The offer drew a firm-side counter; signature came in 11 working days. The office kept the Am Law private-wealth group on a narrowed panel for GST allocation while the new hire ramped.

A national trust bank opened an in-house fiduciary-counsel seat to cut a standing private-client retainer on a book of directed trusts. The candidate was a mid-level associate at an Am Law private-wealth group. The bank matched the then-current lockstep first-year opportunity cost rather than invent an in-house grid. The firm countered. The candidate accepted in 11 working days. The head of legal’s comparison was not lockstep versus an ACC Attorney median. It was lockstep versus another year of panel hours on a standing Form 1041 and trustee file.

The New York associate line carries a 37 percent counter-offer incidence and a median of 11 working days from offer to signature. Trusts-and-estates files inside that book behave like the rest of the line on the clock and unlike the rest of the line on the first shortlist. When the requisition says estate planning and the family-office general counsel means New York QTIP plus a portability 706, the first list is a restart. When the requisition names the docket, the list is a list. On a private-client or family-office brief we test, in order: which returns the lawyer has actually signed or supervised; whether the file was New York ET-706, Massachusetts M-706, or federal only; whether IRA-trust work was conduit or accumulation; and whether a counter-offer from a scale firm is likely, given the 37 percent line rate. A general counsel who has not answered those four questions is still buying a slogan.

For the full class-year lockstep, including the bonus ladder Cravath set on 19 November 2025, see the 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale. Corporate in-house title medians, without a trusts-and-estates cut, sit on the 2026 in-house counsel salary page. For the in-house hire itself, the service is in-house and general counsel recruiting. A family-office general counsel who wants the docket named before the search opens should start with the brief, not the salary line.