Starting pay at many Atlanta corporate law firms has soared in the past two months. In some cases, the pay hikes are putting newly-minted lawyers' base pay miles ahead of their more public service-minded peers and Gov. Sonny Perdue and the state's top attorney.
Since January, when Troutman & Sanders ignited metro Atlanta's pay war, more than a dozen Atlanta law firms have raised salaries for first-year attorneys from $115,000 to $130,000.
Heavyweights King & Spalding and Alston & Bird followed Troutman's lead. The list has since grown to include Kilpatrick Stockton, McKenna Long & Aldridge, Morris, Manning & Martin and others.