What does a new lawyer make?

Newly hired associates at Quinn Emanuel Urquardt Oliver & Hedges now get $145,000, the only Los Angeles law firm to go that high for first-year lawyers, the L.A. Business Journal says.

"I’d be surprised if we’re the last,” said A. William Urquardt, name partner of the firm, which specializes in intellectual property cases.

Firms in New York, San Francisco and Palo Alto have upped their scale to $145,000 recently, but L.A. offices have held steady at $135,000 since September, when Irell & Manella LLP triggered a wave of increases by upping its first-year pay to that level. Until then, first year-associate pay had held relatively steady at $125,000 for nearly seven years.

Also in this week's Business Journal: Richard Riordan is the paper's business person of the year, more restaurants add curb service, and trying to keep the Times' closed Chatsworth plant industrial.