Latham & Watkins pays its incoming associates in New York $160,000 yearly, but even so, in the fall of 2014 Sharon Casola, a new associate in Latham’s New York office, was worried about money. A recent graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Casola was paying interest rates of more than 7 percent on her student loans. She feared that if for some reason she wasn’t able to keep her job at the firm, she wouldn’t be able to make both loan payments and rent.
After hearing Latham’s chief operating officer, LeeAnn Black, speak about the financial state of the firm, Casola chased Black down to explain her predicament.
