For any attorneys who started at boutique/smaller firms - what was your salary as a First Year Associate?

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Started at 90k at a 20 lawyer firm on a suburb in the south, prior to the great recession. Was at 130k by the time of my resignation.

Given that I was a young man back then, I was thrilled with that. Immediately rushed out and bought a condo and a new BMW - protip, don't do that. Save your early earnings and invest. I'd have a nice extra chunk of change in the bank if I hadn't spent most of my first few years of earnings on dumb shit like that.

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I wish I had asked earlier, I bought an Audi last month haha. My old car was going to die on me any day though and my commute is 50 miles each way so I figured the utility was worth the financial cost

70k- small firm in a smaller city. Definitely under market but was a good place to start.

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$70k

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75k, 85k after bar passage. Philly. 15-20 lawyer firm.

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Hey! Is this normal for a small firm in Philly? What kind of law does the firm specialize in?

$50K. Solo practitioner (plus me) family law firm in San Diego. The trade off was intense training, mentorship, and flexible hours. It was worth it!

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I had a similar scenario. $55k, working with a solo, family law in NJ. Amazing mentor, encouraged work/life balance and also paid for the entirety of my medical insurance premium.

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125k Bay Area corporate

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Nice! Where?

96k Bay Area CA in business immigration. I'm pretty happy working here so far but during salary negotiation the firm owner countered my initial proposal and cited the firm's size

100k Bay Area, CA, IP

73k, health, which is pretty good for my area. We definitely have small firms here paying 50k. It’s also a unicorn job because it’s exactly what I want to do and the culture is actually awesome. So I’m hoping it’s upwards from here.

52k but that was a long time ago, and it was just me and another guy. Also relevant, it was in the Midwest (not Chicago) in a low cost of living city.

Also—it was totally worth it. That experience honestly launched me into other jobs in a terrible market that I wouldn’t have otherwise been qualified for as a newbie.

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$75k. New England, Plaintiffs’ PI/Med mal

70k but got bumped to 80k after 6 months

$75k, NY metro area

$57k Miami right out of law school

70k, sf bay area, general lit at a boutique

60k gulf coast.

65k Midwest 500k > 100k population.

70k but increased to $90k in less than a year in LA

$46K, 8 attorney firm, Oklahoma City, 10 years ago, but the trade off was tons of experience and that was completely true.

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