Houston’s Susman Godfrey, which jolted the market last year when it hiked starting associate salaries to $190,000, just crammed another lure on its hiring hook: a $25,000 signing bonus.

“We want the best candidates. We want to stand out to the best candidates. And we thought this would be a differentiator,” said Erica Harris, the hiring partner and chair of the employment committee at Susman, which also has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.