Salary · Washington associate economics
WilmerHale Salary 2026: the $225,000 cell that does not fill the job
As of 11 September 2026, WilmerHale still prints a U.S. associate lockstep that starts at $225,000. Matching that cell is not the same as filling a Washington in-house seat. The dated table is below. The gates sit next to it.
The table is public. The job stays open.
WilmerHale salary in 2026 still starts at $225,000 on the firm's own careers table, accessed 11 September 2026. Sartori maps about 52,000 lawyers in Washington. Matching that cell is not filling a Washington in-house seat.
First-year associate base on WilmerHale’s careers lockstep, accessed 11 September 2026 — the January 2024–January 2026 market cell, not a confirmed July 2026 raise. WilmerHale careers ↗
Four instruments, one Washington hire. The June 2026 market raise is a different table. The lockstep a general counsel can actually read is below.
- $1.61B
- 2025 gross revenue at this firm, up 0.6 percent, as posted 6 February 2026.
- The National Law Journal, quoting American Lawyer, 6 February 2026
- $1.63M
- 2025 revenue per lawyer, up 1.5 percent, in the same 6 February 2026 readout.
- The National Law Journal, quoting American Lawyer, 6 February 2026
- 230
- Equity partners on 2025 results, down more than 9 percent.
- The National Law Journal, quoting American Lawyer, 6 February 2026
- 992
- 2025 attorney head count in the American Lawyer ranking — essentially flat. Marketing copy says more than 1,100.
- The National Law Journal, quoting American Lawyer, 6 February 2026
The WilmerHale salary cells a general counsel can underwrite
The U.S. cash grid that is WilmerHale-named in the 2026 record is an eight-cell lockstep on the careers page, plus a 18 December 2025 bonus match. It is not a July 2026 raise.
WilmerHale’s “Entry Level or Lateral Attorneys” careers page, accessed 11 September 2026, states that the firm provides a market lockstep base salary for associates, senior associates and counsel, and prints the eight cells in the table below. The class-year labels on that page still read 2023 and 2024 on the first-year row; the dollar grid is the January 2024–January 2026 lockstep, not a new mid-year scale. Annual performance bonuses are described there as discretionary and contribution-based. Dollar bonus amounts are not on the careers page.
Searchers who type Wilmer Hale salary with a space land on the same printed grid. Cravath’s internal memorandum of 18 November 2025, posted by Above the Law as a PDF, set 2026 bases effective 1 January 2026 at class of 2025 $225,000 through class of 2019 $420,000. ABA Journal, on 19 November 2025, republished that 2026 base grid. Those bases are Cravath’s. They are the market scale this firm’s careers table still matches, except for the $435,000 second-year-and-above counsel cell, which sits above the November 2025 Cravath memo top. The sibling page on the 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale owns the June 2026 market ladder; this page does not restate it as a WilmerHale column.
| Seniority as printed | Track | Base salary | Cravath class-year equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st year associate | Associate | $225,000 | Class of 2025 |
| 2nd year associate | Associate | $235,000 | Class of 2024 |
| 3rd year associate | Associate | $260,000 | Class of 2023 |
| 4th year senior associate | Senior associate | $310,000 | Class of 2022 |
| 5th year associate | Associate | $365,000 | Class of 2021 |
| 6th year associate | Associate | $390,000 | Class of 2020 |
| 1st year counsel | Counsel | $420,000 | Class of 2019 |
| 2nd year and above counsel | Counsel | $435,000 | Not on the Nov 2025 Cravath base memo |
Source: WilmerHale careers, accessed 11 September 2026. Cravath column: Cravath memo, 18 November 2025.
Above the Law’s 2025 bonus scorecard lists WilmerHale as matching on 18 December 2025: class of 2025 $15,000 (prorated) / $6,000 (prorated); class of 2018 and earlier $115,000 / $25,000. Hours requirement and payout date are marked undisclosed on that tracker. A 19 December 2025 Above the Law article states that the firm is matching the prevailing market rate. Do not treat hours-free eligibility as a WilmerHale 2025 fact; that language is in the Cravath memo, not in the extracted tracker row. The four sourced bonus cells a general counsel can actually underwrite sit below. Intermediate class years exist on the Cravath memorandum; this page does not reprint cells it did not extract.
| Class year | Year-end bonus | Special bonus | Bonus stack | What the cell is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2025 | $15,000 | $6,000 | $21,000 | Prorated; ATL tracker 18 Dec 2025 |
| Class of 2022 | $57,500 | $15,000 | $72,500 | Same 2025 market scale; cash-gap mid cell |
| Class of 2021 | $75,000 | $20,000 | $95,000 | Same 2025 market scale; cash-gap mid cell |
| Class of 2018+ | $115,000 | $25,000 | $140,000 | ATL tracker 18 Dec 2025 |
Endpoints: Above the Law bonus tracker, WilmerHale row dated 18 December 2025. Mid cells sit on the same 2025 market scale republished by ABA Journal, 19 November 2025.
The last time this firm published a full class-year salary-and-bonus match under its own name was January 2024. Above the Law, on 24 January 2024, reported that WilmerHale used the Cravath scale for 2024 bases retroactive to 1 January (class of 2023 $225,000 through class of 2016 and earlier $435,000), matched the year-end bonus scale then in force, and reported that 40 percent of eligible attorneys were receiving above-market compensation through a performance-based merit bonus program. That 40 percent figure is firm-supplied, not an independent audit, and it is a 2024 claim, not a 2026 census.
Matching the cell is not filling a Washington in-house job.
A general counsel who authorizes lockstep cash is often buying a Corporate Counsel, Senior Counsel or GS-15 seat. Those are different instruments, and the gates on the open job are what keep it open.
Printed lockstepIn-house gates
- Firm cell Class-year base on the careers table, plus a December 2025 bonus match. Public. Dated. Still a class year.
- Federal ceiling GS-13 through GS-15 in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington locality. A deputy general counsel title on a GS-15 cap sits below a first-year associate cell.
- Company seat Corporate Counsel or Senior Counsel on a general counsel team. Cash can look like a junior lockstep. The gates are years, FAR/DFARS, citizenship and clearance.
GS-15 cap, January 2026
OPM Salary Table 2026-DCB, Washington-Baltimore-Arlington locality. Executive Schedule Level IV cap at steps 6–10.
OPM, January 2026 ↗| Buyer | Title on the seat | Cash versus the first-year cell | Gate the cell does not buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law partnership, Washington office | Associate / senior associate / counsel | Prints the lockstep | Class year and bar eligibility |
| Federal component OGC or enforcement | Attorney Advisor, Deputy General Counsel (GS-15) | Cannot: GS-15 caps at $197,200 in January 2026 | U.S. citizen; often TS/SCI; GS scale |
| Large-cap technology, National Capital Region | Corporate Counsel, Government and Regulatory Litigation | Arlington posted top $208,200 — below the first-year cell | 5+ years; firm and agency mix preferred |
| Defense-tech / contractor legal department | Senior Counsel, Government and Commercial Contracts | Posted $220,000–$265,000 — overlaps 1st–3rd year bases | 8+ years, FAR/DFARS, U.S. person, often clearance |
Firm cell: WilmerHale careers. GS cap: OPM 2026-DCB. In-house bands: employer postings accessed 11 September 2026.
Matching the cell is not filling the job. Association of Corporate Counsel and Empsight, in the 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey Executive Summary, data effective 1 March 2025, put U.S. GC/CLO median base at $330,000 and median total cash at $410,000, on 1,632 self-reported respondents. Senior Attorney median total cash was $228,000; Associate General Counsel $294,000; Deputy GC $368,000; Attorney $160,000. A fourth-year WilmerHale base of $310,000 plus the 2025 bonus match of $72,500 is $382,500 cash, inside the GC/CLO median total. A fifth-year base of $365,000 plus $95,000 is $460,000, above it. Those are different instruments and different years inside the dollars. They are not a placement probability. They show why a chief legal officer who “matches the WilmerHale cell” may still be buying a different job than the one that is open.
NALP’s 2025 Associate Salary Survey, as of 1 January 2025, put the overall median first-year base at $200,000 and the median in firms of 701 or more lawyers at $215,000. $225,000 was the modal figure, in 32 percent of offices and 45 percent of 701-plus offices. The Washington, DC area was one of six cities where the median starting salary reached $225,000, and it accounted for 13.0 percent of all reported $225,000 first-year salaries, the largest single-city share. Of 28 DC-area offices reporting first-year pay, 53.6 percent were at $225,000. This firm’s printed first-year cell sat on that city median as of the 2025 survey. It did not, as of 31 July 2026, sit on the June 2026 market floor.
Matching the cell is not filling the job.
The lawyer who earns the figure sits inside the firm. The buyer who matches it does not.
U.S. associates, senior associates and counsel earn the cash on a Washington-and-Boston platform. The general counsel who matches it sits at the agencies, technology hubs and contractor desks that already buy the work.
The 2026 figure is earned on a law-firm seat, not in a corporate legal department.
- Intake is a 2L summer and a clerkship credit. The firm’s Lawyers page, accessed 11 September 2026, treats judicial clerkship as a primary path: approximately one-third of recent incoming classes have come after one or more clerkships, with credit for compensation and seniority and a competitive clerk bonus. Search firms may not submit judicial-clerk or entry-level resumes. Student pages say the firm typically hires students at or near the top of their class; 2027 2L applications were closed when accessed.
- The desks that print the lockstep are named on the Washington office page. Antitrust and competition, communications, defense, national security, government contracts, FDA, intellectual property, international trade, litigation and arbitration, securities enforcement and regulation. The antitrust page claims more than 70 competition lawyers in the United States and Europe. The IP litigation page claims more than 200 general IP, IP litigation and appellate lawyers, and more than 100 lawyers with scientific and technical backgrounds. Those are firm-marketed bands, not a 2026 census.
- Location is a four-day gate, not a pay driver. Above the Law, on 5 March 2025, reported that associates were told the in-office requirement would rise from three days to four from 28 April 2025. London newly qualified pounds are not on Legal Cheek’s accessed 2026 Firms Most List; this page does not invent a sterling cell.
The general counsel who matches this cash already buys the work, and later hires the people who staffed it.
- Federal buyers cannot print the cell. A Department of Justice National Security Division Attorney Advisor, GS-13 through GS-15, updated 10 September 2026, lists salary at $121,785–$158,322 / $143,913–$187,093 / $169,279–$197,200, Top Secret/SCI, U.S. citizens only, work in a SCIF. A Criminal Division Deputy General Counsel at GS-15 is the same $169,279–$197,200 cap. FTC Bureau of Competition was hiring into Washington merger, conduct, health, technology and litigation groups when accessed; pay is GS, not lockstep.
- Large-cap in-house cash sat below the first-year cell. A Corporate Counsel, Government and Regulatory Litigation posting for a large-cap technology platform, accessed 11 September 2026, listed Arlington and Seattle at $153,900–$208,200 for five or more years post-bar, with law-firm and agency experience preferred. The Arlington top sits below $225,000.
- Contractor in-house cash can look like a junior lockstep and still not fill. A Washington defense-tech Senior Counsel, Government and Commercial Contracts posting, accessed 11 September 2026, listed $220,000–$265,000 plus stock options for eight or more years of FAR and/or DFARS, export-control competence, and U.S.-person status. That band overlaps first- through third-year bases for a seat whose years and clearance gates do not.
Federal enforcement and component OGCs
FTC Bureau of Competition, DOJ National Security Division OGC, FBI Office of the General Counsel. Titles look like in-house. Cash is the January 2026 GS-15 cap.
Large-cap technology, National Capital Region
The general counsel running a government-and-regulatory litigation desk in Arlington. Posted cash in 2026 sat below the first-year lockstep cell.
Defense-tech and contractor legal departments
Senior Counsel seats that overlap a junior lockstep dollar while asking for FAR/DFARS, U.S.-person status, and often a clearance.
Life-sciences, financial-services and trade desks
Companies that already buy the firm's FDA, securities-enforcement and international-trade work, then hire the alumni onto a corporate payroll.
The Washington office page, accessed 11 September 2026, states that more than 100 of the firm’s lawyers have high-level government experience. That is a credential subset, not a DC office census, and it is the feeder a chief legal officer is actually buying when the open seat is APA, HSR, CFIUS, FISA or securities-enforcement work. Boston is marketed at 250 or more lawyers. Twelve offices in the United States and Europe. The Beijing office closed after a 29 October 2024 announcement, four attorneys including two partners, with trade, sanctions, export control and corporate work absorbed into U.S. and European desks. There is no 2026 Beijing associate class to price.
WilmerHale partner salary is not a public cell. PEP is an average.
A partner paycheck at this firm is profit share. What is public is 2025 gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, an equity-partnership change, a ranking head count — and an Am Law profits-per-equity-partner average.
The National Law Journal, quoting American Lawyer figures dated 6 February 2026, put 2025 profits per equity partner up nearly 6 percent to $3.4 million, after equity-partner ranks fell more than 9 percent to 230. That is the only partner-pay cell in the record. It is an average of distributable profit over equity owners. It is not a W-2, a draw, a nonequity salary or a counsel band. Anyone selling $3.4 million 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.
Headcount is a band, not a single 2026 census. The same 6 February 2026 readout put attorney head count essentially flat at 992. The About page, accessed 11 September 2026, says more than 1,100 lawyers. Wikipedia’s infobox, accessed the same day, lists 1,201 attorneys for 2025 — a secondary compilation, not a substitute for a 2024 Am Law table. Band roughly 990 to 1,200 depending on methodology. Do not average them, and do not treat any of them as a partner-pay denominator.
Thomson Reuters Institute and Georgetown Law, in the January 2026 Report on the State of the US Legal Market, recorded lawyer compensation expenses up 8.2 percent versus 2024 across a panel of 184 U.S. firms including 50 Am Law 100 firms, with Am Law 100 standard rates cracking the $1,000 barrier in 2025. Average-firm weekday-adjusted demand averaged about 2.5 percent; full-year average-firm demand growth was also stated as 1.9 percent — two named metrics, not one blended headline. Am Law 100 demand could not crack 2 percent while midsize approached 5 percent in the latter half of 2025. Firm-side lockstep is funded by rate, not by hours growth at the Am Law 100. In-house Washington seats stay open because the buyer’s budget is the ACC and GS table, not the lockstep.
The 2026 lockstep sits on a Washington docket, not on a national raise.
An executive order tried to cut the firm off from clearances and contractor clients; a district court struck it down. HSR hours bloated, then the form was vacated. APA and SEC-jury holdings moved work into D.D.C. and district-court trials. That is the desk a general counsel is matching, not a first-year sticker.
Firm-level shockStructural docket
- Order Executive Order 14250, 27 March 2025, directed agencies to suspend clearances, limit building access, and review contractor relationships. Hiring consequence was freeze risk, then it was enjoined.
- Vacatur The expanded HSR form took effect 10 February 2025 and was vacated in February 2026. Form-prep hours compressed. Merger-challenge and second-request staffing did not.
- Trials Loper Bright sent APA meaning to the courts. Jarkesy sent SEC civil-penalty fraud claims to Article III juries. 2026 recruiting is post-injunction, trial-ready, clearance-sensitive.
A GS-15 deputy general counsel prints below a first-year lockstep. Executive Order 14250, “Addressing Risks From WilmerHale,” 27 March 2025, published at 90 Fed. Reg. 14549 (3 April 2025), directed agencies to suspend active security clearances of individuals at the firm pending review, cease providing government goods and SCIFs, require federal contractors to disclose business with the firm, and refrain from hiring firm employees absent an agency-head waiver. In Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP v. Executive Office of the President, No. 1:25-cv-917 (D.D.C.), the memorandum opinion filed 27 May 2025 concluded the order must be struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional. The amended order of 26 June 2025 declared it unconstitutional under the First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments and ultra vires, and permanently enjoined implementation. Reuters, the same 27 May, recorded it as the third D.D.C. ruling against the law-firm orders, after Perkins Coie on 2 May and Jenner & Block on 23 May, with nine other firms having settled. 2026 recruiting is post-injunction. The order is not the 2026 baseline.
The FTC finalized HSR form changes on 10 October 2024, effective 10 February 2025. Chair memorandum of 18 February 2025 recorded that in the last week under the old form, the Premerger Notification Office received 394 filings accounting for about 200 transactions versus a typical 35 to 50 transactions per week. White & Case, on 20 March 2026, reported that the Eastern District of Texas vacated the 2025 HSR Rules on 12 February 2026 and that the Fifth Circuit denied a stay pending appeal on 19 March 2026; the pre-February 2025 form is accepted immediately. Second-request authority was unchanged. The 2023 Merger Guidelines remained in effect as of the 18 February 2025 FTC announcement. Antitrust associates who do merger clearance and litigation stay in the 2026 hiring mix; this is not an enforcement holiday that would let a general counsel stop matching the lockstep for those seats.
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (28 June 2024), overruled Chevron: courts must exercise independent judgment on statutory meaning. SEC v. Jarkesy (27 June 2024) held that when the SEC seeks civil penalties for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial in federal court. The SEC addendum to Division of Enforcement press release 2026-34, covering fiscal 2025, recorded 456 total enforcement actions including 303 standalone actions, against 431 standalone in fiscal 2024, and orders for monetary relief of $17.9 billion, of which $14.9 billion is the Stanford International Bank matter. Volume of new standalone actions cooled; remaining penalty cases are district-court trials. A chief legal officer matching a securities cell is buying trial capacity.
Fiscal 2024 Hart-Scott-Rodino volume, released 17 September 2025, was 2,031 reported transactions, about one-fourth valued over $1 billion, and 32 merger enforcement actions (FTC 18, Department of Justice 14). CFIUS calendar-year 2024, in Treasury’s annual report released August 2025, recorded 209 written notices of covered transactions and 116 investigations. Those denominators fill midlevel antitrust, CFIUS/export and national-security seats in Washington. They do not convert a lockstep cell into an in-house fill unless the candidate already holds, or can obtain, the clearance the posting names.
A GS-15 deputy general counsel prints below a first-year lockstep.
Write the offer on the cells that exist, then write the gates.
We have worked the Washington associate market for more than 10 years, for general counsel, chief legal officers and heads of legal in technology, defense and government-contractor companies, and for the firms that staff those dockets.
Over the trailing three years Sartori’s Washington associate mandate telemetry records 33 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 36 percent of those 33 closed associate files. Of those 33, 12 were company-side hires of WilmerHale-or-peer antitrust, government-regulatory or government-contracts associates in years 4 through 6, over that same 36-month window. Seven of those 12 closed inside the 6-to-12-week band. Five lost first-round compensation authority because the board treated matching a lockstep cell as filling the job.
Three of those 5 ran past 12 weeks on gates — U.S.-person status, a clearance, FAR/DFARS, or a GS scale — not on shortlist quality. Those five files are why a 93 percent completion rate is not a victory lap: they were re-scoped, they did not vanish, and they did not fill on the original brief. That conversion cost is the uncomfortable number on this page.
In that Washington interview cohort, 94 of 156 respondents sitting as general counsel, chief legal officer or head of legal at Washington companies over a 24-month window named the printed lockstep cell as the number they would match. Sixty-one of those 94 then described a seat that also required U.S.-person status, a clearance, or a reporting line into a GC that a class year does not describe. A general counsel at a Northern Virginia technology platform told us, inside that window, that matching $225,000 felt like a market offer until the candidate’s last W-2 sat on a fourth-year cell. A chief legal officer at a Washington defense-tech company said the $220,000–$265,000 Senior Counsel band looked like a lockstep match until the FAR/DFARS and U.S.-person gates emptied the first shortlist.
Two composites, category only. A Northern Virginia technology platform asked us to move a year-4 government-and-regulatory associate from a WilmerHale-peer platform into a Corporate Counsel seat on the general counsel’s government-enforcement team — the first in-house role after a lockstep career. The company had used that firm as outside counsel on agency investigations. The first brief matched the printed $225,000 first-year cell. The candidate was on a $310,000 fourth-year base. The live posting band in that metro for the same title sat at $153,900–$208,200. We rewrote the brief to Associate General Counsel cash plus equity before the name circulated. Time-to-fill: eleven weeks. A venture-backed defense-tech operator in Washington asked for a Senior Counsel, government and commercial contracts, on a $220,000–$265,000 band. The first shortlist was lockstep juniors. The gates were eight or more years of FAR/DFARS, U.S.-person status, and ability to obtain a clearance. We put years, docket and citizenship on the same document as the cell. Time-to-fill: nine weeks. No real company, firm or candidate is named in either file.
A general counsel who searches for in house counsel recruiters after matching a WilmerHale cell is usually trying to buy a reporting line and a docket, not a class year. 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.
WilmerHale 2026 pay: questions both sides of the table ask
What is WilmerHale salary in 2026 for associates, counsel and partners?
The firm’s 2026 U.S. lockstep still starts at $225,000 for a first-year associate on the careers table, accessed 11 September 2026. The printed grid then runs $235,000, $260,000, $310,000, $365,000 and $390,000 through sixth year, then $420,000 and $435,000 at counsel. Those dollars are the January 2024–January 2026 market grid; they are not a confirmed July 2026 raise to $235,000. Partner pay is public only as a 2025 profits-per-equity-partner average of $3.4 million, published 6 February 2026, not as a partner salary scale. London newly qualified pounds were not on Legal Cheek’s accessed 2026 list and are omitted.
What is WilmerHale partner salary, and what does the PEP figure measure?
WilmerHale partner salary is not a public figure; 2025 profits per equity partner averaged $3.4 million. That cell is an American Lawyer average of equity-owner profit, carried by The National Law Journal on 6 February 2026 after equity-partner ranks fell more than 9 percent to 230, not a W-2. Individual draws, nonequity pay and counsel bands were not in the record. Treat PEP as a proxy for the equity pool, not as anyone’s paycheck.
Did WilmerHale match the June 2026 raise to a $235,000 first-year base?
No public match had been recorded as of 31 July 2026. Boston.com reported that day that none of Boston’s major firms including this one had announced a $235,000 starting salary, and Above the Law’s 2026 raise scorecard, with a table through 31 August 2026, does not list WilmerHale. Milbank set the $235,000–$455,000 ladder on 2 June 2026. A general counsel cannot treat that ladder as this firm’s 2026 cell.
What should a general counsel budget to hire a WilmerHale-trained lawyer in-house in 2026?
Budget the printed $225,000 first-year cell and the 18 December 2025 bonus match; matching those dollars does not fill a Washington in-house seat. A fourth-year base of $310,000 plus the 2025 bonus stack of $72,500 is $382,500 cash. A fifth-year base of $365,000 plus $95,000 is $460,000 — above the ACC GC/CLO median total cash of $410,000 as of 1 March 2025. Write the title, docket, clearance and reporting line on the same document as the cell, and close the GS-versus-lockstep question before the compensation committee meets.
Why does a Washington in-house seat stay open after the lockstep cell is matched?
Because the open job is defined by title, docket, clearance and reporting line, not by class year. A GS-15 deputy general counsel in Washington tops out at $197,200 in January 2026 — below the first-year cell. A large-cap technology Corporate Counsel posting in Arlington was advertised at $153,900–$208,200 for five or more years. A defense-tech Senior Counsel band of $220,000–$265,000 overlaps a junior lockstep cell while asking for eight or more years, FAR/DFARS and U.S.-person status. Matching the dollar is one input.
What 2025 bonus did WilmerHale pay, and is there an hours gate?
WilmerHale matched the 2025 market year-end and special bonus scale on 18 December 2025. Above the Law’s tracker records class of 2025 at $15,000 / $6,000 (prorated) and class of 2018 and earlier at $115,000 / $25,000. Hours requirement and payout date are marked undisclosed on that tracker; this page does not import another firm’s hours-free language. Intermediate class-year bonus cells used in the cash-gap read sit on the same 2025 market scale: class of 2022 $57,500 + $15,000 and class of 2021 $75,000 + $20,000.
The careers table, the December bonus match, the February P&L, and the Washington interview cohort.
U.S. base cells come from the employer careers page accessed 11 September 2026. The 2025 bonus match comes from Above the Law's tracker dated 18 December 2025. Partner economics come from American Lawyer figures as posted by The National Law Journal on 6 February 2026. Reachability comes from Sartori's Washington associate research program.
Sources and further reading
43 references- Sartori & Partners — Washington Legal Talent Research Programme (1,300 structured interviews; ~52,000 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- Entry Level or Lateral Attorneys wilmerhale.com ↗
- About Us wilmerhale.com ↗
- Washington DC wilmerhale.com ↗
- Boston wilmerhale.com ↗
- Lawyers wilmerhale.com ↗
- Antitrust and Competition wilmerhale.com ↗
- Intellectual Property Litigation wilmerhale.com ↗
- WilmerHale en.wikipedia.org ↗
- 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 ↗
- Cravath kicks off associate bonus season and other firms follow abajournal.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: Biglaw's 2025 Bonus Blitz abovethelaw.com ↗
- Biglaw Firm Targeted By Trump Delights With Associate Bonuses abovethelaw.com ↗
- Top Biglaw Firm Announces Big-Time Raises, Bonuses For Associates abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: The 2026 Summer Of Salary Increases abovethelaw.com ↗
- Milbank, McDermott Raise Associate Salaries Up to $455,000 news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- This Boston law firm is boosting starting salaries to $235,000 boston.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 ↗
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr managed 2025 revenue of $1.61 billion linkedin.com ↗
- 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey Executive Summary acc.com ↗
- Salary Table 2026-DCB opm.gov ↗
- Corporate Counsel, Government and Regulatory Litigation amazon.jobs ↗
- Senior Counsel, Government & Commercial Contracts zeno-power.breezy.hr ↗
- Attorney Advisor, GS-0905-13-15 justice.gov ↗
- Deputy General Counsel justice.gov ↗
- ADDRESSING RISKS FROM WILMERHALE whitehouse.gov ↗
- Memorandum Opinion, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP v. Executive Office of the President, No. 1:25-cv-917 (D.D.C. May 27, 2025) storage.courtlistener.com ↗
- Amended Order, No. 1:25-cv-917 (D.D.C. June 26, 2025) storage.courtlistener.com ↗
- US judge blocks Trump order against law firm WilmerHale reuters.com ↗
- FTC and DOJ Issue Fiscal Year 2024 Hart-Scott-Rodino Annual Report ftc.gov ↗
- Memorandum: Merger Guidelines (February 18, 2025) ftc.gov ↗
- HSR rewind: The New HSR Rules are vacated whitecase.com ↗
- Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo supremecourt.gov ↗
- SEC v. Jarkesy supremecourt.gov ↗
- Addendum to Division of Enforcement Press Release 2026-34 sec.gov ↗
- 2024 CFIUS Annual Report home.treasury.gov ↗
- 2026 Report on the State of the US Legal Market thomsonreuters.com ↗
- WilmerHale shutters Beijing office reuters.com ↗
- Yet Another Top Biglaw Firm Mandates Four Office Days abovethelaw.com ↗
- The Firms Most List legalcheek.com ↗
- Attorney Hiring in the Bureau of Competition ftc.gov ↗
U.S. lockstep bases are the employer careers table accessed 11 September 2026. The 18 December 2025 bonus match is Above the Law's 2025 bonus scorecard; hours are undisclosed on that row. Absence from the 2026 raise table is the scorecard updated through 31 August 2026 and Boston.com, 31 July 2026. 2025 revenue, RPL, equity-partner count, head count and PEP are American Lawyer figures as posted by The National Law Journal on 6 February 2026. In-house medians are ACC/Empsight, data effective 1 March 2025. GS rates are OPM Salary Table 2026-DCB.
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 WilmerHale had not publicly joined as of 31 July 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 cell that is public — then write the gates the cell does not buy.
We price WilmerHale-trained associates and counsel onto a company payroll against the dated table, not a guessed July 2026 raise. Confidential, no obligation. The company brief comes first.