Utah's client base has traditionally been unwilling to pay fees even remotely comparable to firms in California, NY, and other big markets. But given the desire of many to live in Utah, the legal talent has been very good for a market of SLC's size.

With the pandemic, many firms have done a 180 on remote work. This means a number of young attorneys who worked in the SLC start-up space have gone to Bay Area firms who let them work remotely. For example, Holland & Hart, which used to be the top firm for start-up work in SLC, now has zero associates in their group because they've all left to Bay Area firms (but work remotely). H&H's highest paid associates make $230k, where Bay Area firms pay their highest paid associates $504k. Pretty easy decision.

Separately, Kirkland & Ellis, which is the world's third most profitable law firm, announced that they're going to open an office in SLC with plans to potentially grow it to be the biggest law firm office in Utah. They are going to pay NYC salaries and bonuses, and have no plans to market themselves toward the Utah client base (other than PE firms they would have targeted anyway) or provide discounts to normal (outrageously high) billing rates. They simply want good legal talent to do their deals and Utah has a lot of good legal talent.

Several of Utah's good firms have already lost their top associates, and they are bracing to lose more. The days of attorneys leaving high paying firms to go to lower paying Utah firms are over. As a practical reality Utah firms are going to have to pay their talent a lot more, which means they'll have to bill at higher rates, which means the cost of business in Utah is going to go up.