Kansas City Firms Increase Associates' Pay

Starting salaries for first-year associates at Kansas City law firms have risen to about $95,000, representing a 12 to 15 per cent increase over what area law firms typically paid in recent years.

Jim Heeter, managing partner of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP's Kansas City office, told the Kansas City Business Journal that local offices were forced to keep pace with salary increases that have been made nationwide. "Firms all across the country feel a need to meet the competition in order to get top legal talent," he said. "We consistently hire the top law school graduates. And in today's market, those people command a top salary."

Another attorney noted that there was increasing competition to recruit a limited pool of top law graduates. "If somebody is first in their class at the University of Kansas or the University of Missouri or UMKC and on the law review and interviews well, every big firm is going to be after that person. We are all chasing the same folks all the time," he said.

Source: "Law Firms Boost Salaries for New Hires," by Chris Grenz - the Kansas City Business Journal, June 23, 2006