Date: July 30th, 2012 11:57 AM
Author: Useless Associate Patrolman
This is ***not confirmed*** and may be vetoed at the end of the day. But here's the thought process.
-KIRKLAND & ELLIS is a juggernaut and has massive amounts of cash. Time to squeeze out competitors.
-KIRKLAND & ELLIS already dominates the bonuses scene. Any increase might mean a small short-term bite out of bonuses, but such bonuses would still SHATTER THE MARKET.
-The firm is staffed very leanly at the moment, so this is a way of not only maximizing retention but also rewarding those who've been working hard.
-They wouldn't want to do $170K on up--they'd prefer to keep starting at $160K and reward senior associates more. But they know that the entry-level salary is the magic title in the market. Senior associates would probably get $15K hikes instead of $10K hikes.
Again, NOT CONFIRMED, but ***very*** high levels advocating this.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2009258&forum_id=2#21213677)