BUFFALO, N.Y. (Buffalo Business First) — A Buffalo law firm is in its second year of a talent attraction and retention campaign that included a significant shift in its pay and benefit offerings.
Tully Rinckey PLLC, which is based in Latham but has an office of about 12 attorneys in Williamsville, recently increased pay, health benefits, 401(k) matches and added other benefits as part of its “Year of the Employee” campaign, which started in 2025 and is continuing this year.
“It’s really just furthering our commitment to our staff and attorneys to make sure they feel valued and compensated for the work they do,” said partner and CEO Michael Macomber.
It has been a big investment, he said, which came at a “seven figure” expense to the firm.
“But that outweighs the negative of losing quality people or the cost of having to replace them with costs in advertising, recruiting and time loss,” he said.
In 2024, the firm, which has about 80 attorneys across 10 offices, sent out internal surveys and collected feedback from employees about what benefits mattered most to them.
“It’s a two-way street. If employees are providing constructive criticism, it’s only helpful if we actually take action based upon that feedback,” Macomber said.
That’s why the company decided in 2025 to begin offering no-cost individual health insurance for all full-time employees, along with free dental, vision and life insurance.
“Health benefits were a major pain point for our employees with the rising costs for that,” Macomber said. “Post-Covid years we were seeing upticks of between 15% and 25% increases in the cost of health insurance. That has a significant impact on the individual and their net take-home.”
The firm also increased its 401(k) contribution to a 100% match up to 6%.
So far in 2026, the firm raised compensation for first-year attorneys to $120,000 and added a new bonus structure where attorneys can make up to 60% of their salary in bonuses. Macomber said that in 2023 and 2024, starting attorneys made between $75,000 and $80,000, so $120,000 is “highly competitive” for the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany regions.
“Being aggressive on the compensation side of things makes it easier to find the right candidates,” he said.
Other benefits are taking more time to roll out, like cross training opportunities for attorneys.
