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Published on: 2/28/2007
Last Visited: 3/9/2007
The firm's managing partner, Mark D. Wasserman, said Sutherland has "not yet finalized" whether the Atlanta pay increase will be by $15,000 across the board, as some of its competitors have done, or on a per-class basis but said he expects the pay raise will "float pretty much through all the classes."Sutherland has about 120 associates in Atlanta.
Wasserman added that the firm is raising starting pay firmwide for patent attorneys, who often earn higher salaries, to $160,000.
Sutherland's announcement followed recent increases at other big Atlanta firms that have raised starting pay to $130,000.They include Troutman Sanders; Alston & Bird; King & Spalding; Morris, Manning & Martin; Kilpatrick Stockton; Powell Goldstein; McKenna Long & Aldridge; and Smith, Gambrell & Russell.
Jones Day and DLA Piper have increased starting pay for Atlanta associates to $135,000, and last week Hunton & Williams bumped its starting pay here to $145,000, but neither firm is based here.
"When we looked at our true competition, we didn't think $135,000 or $145,000 was where the market was, or what was appropriate," said Wasserman.