A lot of people on here say that they should be paid what they’re worth (which always seems to be the Cravath scale). While that’s a good sentiment to have, it’s unrealistic. I think some of the junior associates on here think that anyone billing over 1800 hours deserves to be paid $200k+. The narrative on here sometimes gets crazy. A junior associate in a small shop making $125k for 1800 hours isn’t “severely underpaid.” There are some egregious cases (9th year making $90k)… cont

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I agree with your conclusion but not entirely the reasoning, i.e., it's not because of just hours and expectations. Rather, it's just a fact that clients are willing to pay more for legal services provided by certain lawyers/firms (i.e., upper "end" of BL). If you can command a certain hourly rate, the associates get paid accordingly.

I think a lot of lawyers (perhaps by our training) are too focused on what's *fair/just* as opposed to what *is*. I agree with you, therefore, that it's fallacious to compare with BL just because "I'm a lawyer too." Compensation is not determined by what people feel they are "worth" — it's determined in large part by what clients are willing to pay for your services (even if you think you deserve more for your labor) and the profit that your firm is generating.

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But most people here are being very unrealistic about expectations. The reason people get paid Cravath scale is only partially the hours. The other half is that you have literally no control over your schedule.

People will disagree and that’s fine. Just giving my two cents.

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The point is that we need to stop comparing every job against market paying biglaw.

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Why you not hammered bruh? It’s Friday!

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The problem is many people work just as hard if not even harder and also have no control over their schedule but they make significant less. So if there is an opportunity to get more money at another firm, why not?

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OP — sure, it’s fine to set expectations but it’s also fine to tell someone burning the midnight oil for small/mid-law and similar hours in a roughly transferable practice that they can head to biglaw and vastly increase their salary. Doesn’t impose a big burden to fill out a few apps and apply to see where things land there.

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