The country's biggest, most profitable law firms—think Milbank, Davis Polk, Paul Weiss, and Cravath—are falling all over themselves to increase the salaries of their associates with many bumping up the wages of first-year associates to more than $200,000.

On this episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law's Meghan Tribe explains what's driving this attorney salary arms race, and she talks about how much higher associate salaries can possibly go.

She also says that, while these just-out-of-law-school lawyers may be earning top dollar, their lives are far from luxurious.

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