One of the country's top law firms, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, has restructured its equity partnership, expanding the income gap between its rainmakers and junior partners, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The firm's top earners — so-called 1,000-share partners — can now earn as much as $12 million or $13 million, the two people, who are Gibson Dunn partners, said. Insider spoke with four people about the change: two Gibson Dunn partners and two former partners. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not have firm permission. Their identities are known to Insider.
Last year, Gibson Dunn's top partners could earn anywhere between $8 million and $9 million, according to one of these partners. The change went into effect on January 1 and was designed to improve the firm's recruiting efforts and retain its top talent.
"There were people who were vastly undercompensated related to the rest of the market," one firm partner said.
A representative for Gibson Dunn declined to comment.
Gibson's pay restructuring came after other top law firms raised pay to stay competitive. Kirkland & Ellis and Quinn Emanuel, known for paying the most, have offered top performers more than $15 million, and sometimes more than $20 million a year, according to people familiar with the matter.
Gibson Dunn, a firm with over 1,600 lawyers and 20 offices, is best known for handling high-profile disputes on behalf of Fortune 500 companies like Apple and Chevron. It has also represented corporations like Merck and investors like Platinum Equity in recent multibillion-dollar deals.
The firm is chaired by Barbara Becker, a corporate partner who is known for cochairing the firm's mergers-and-acquisitions group and leading its diversity committee.
The firm has an executive committee that included 18 people as of 2019, including Ted Olson, a top lawyer in President George W. Bush's administration who has worked on high-profile political lawsuits; Ted Boutrous, a media lawyer known for representing journalists in cases against the Trump administration; and Veronica Moyé, who represented Apple in its antitrust fight with Epic Games.
Former firm partners said the pay change represented a break in how Gibson Dunn had historically compensated its partners. One of the draws of the firm has been its tight-knit culture, one of the former partners said, and some of its top partners have been comfortable not being paid as much as competitors.
But the firm has expanded in New York City and has ambitions to build out its corporate department. Both are developments that require the firm to pay more money to star partners.
"I suspect this was a little bit of a continuation of what I'd call the New Yorkification of Gibson Dunn," one of the former partners said.
