Top firms in Denver and elsewhere pay first-year associates $80,000 to $125,000 a year.

Like other top national firms, it pays its first-year associates $165,000.

My God, these are first-year associates and all they were talking about was the merger.

A starting first-year associate at Paul Weiss is paid $160,000 per year.

Since 1986, pay for first-year associates has jumped 50 percent.

By comparison, a first-year associate at a large law firm bills clients between $100 and $125 an hour.

The new salary is $5,712 above what first-year associates received in 1986.

My salary is less than half that of a first-year associate at a law firm.

That is more than double the $15,000 that first-year associates received last year.