Am I making enough profit for my firm?

I became a 2 year lawyer in September. I started working at my firm, a mid-sized firm practicing commercial business litigation and PI, in March of 2020. Last year I made the firm $180k from my billable hours and I was paid $85k + full health and other benefits.

This year, I'm on track to make about $150k and to make the firm about $450k from my billable hours and PI cases that I originated and settled.

Trying to do right for my firm. I'm treated well.

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Agree with the comment above. 1/3 of collections is about right. As you gain more experience, your share should increase. Refreshing that you actually care about being profitable.

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You’re a cog in the machine. It’s your real job to bill hours, so that your employer can sell them. A byproduct for them is they have to teach you how to practice law.

Profit making isn’t your concern unless you’re also bringing in business, at which point you should be getting origination fees.

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What’s your overhead and employer pay benefits? If you exceed that amount, then you are profitable. Covering your salary isn’t the same as profitable

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You are doing great and thank you for caring about the firm. I would be ecstatic if you were a 2 year attorney making this for the firm. Our attorneys push about a million in fees for the firm and then some do not care and barely make anything for the firm and wonder why they are getting terminated.

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Generally speaking, attorneys should be paid ~1/3 what their A/R is, so yes, you are being paid approximately what you should be

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I get a bonus of 25% of any hourly cases I bring in and 30%-40% of the firms fee from any PI cases I bring in based upon how quickly the case settles. My firm treats me very well and the partners have taught me a lot. Essentially, they've bought my loyalty with how much they pay me and their respect. So I want to make sure I'm keeping up my end of the bargain by making the firm as much money as I can.

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At OP- you are an employee. You do work in exchange for money. You will keep doing work in exchange for money so long as the money is commiserate with the quantity/quality of work you do.

LOYALTY has nothing to do with your employment relationship. If you died tomorrow, they would post your position before your obituary posted. We’re all just glorified whores. You can like a John, and learn from a John even. But you never fall in love with one.

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