Hoping to start a salary discussion here. Big law is very different than small law in this respect. Anyone willing to share? Trying to negotiate salary for next year. Am the only non-partner atty here

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$60k salary with tired bonus structure on all billing over $100k. Made over $120k last year with bonuses. I’m a non-equity partner and have been practicing almost 4 years.

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*Tiered

Second year. <15 attorneys in Nashville. $80k plus bonuses for hours (5% of salary if over 1200 billable hours, regardless of collections) and for collections (tiered % depending on amt over $180k). Got $5k raise this year

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That’s the $80k

That’s a fairly generous compensation formula.

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Live in Texas and know many small firm owners. Some start off paying 45-50k base salary with some kind of bonus structure. That bonus structure ranges from receiving 10% of each case settled or it could be a flat bonus based on the revenue tiers the firm hits each month.

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$82k, 2 attorneys (including myself), one support staff member. No defined bonus structure. No billable hour requirements. Health insurance. Located in Sacramento area.

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I make $125,000. Graduated 2015. DC.

40K, no bonuses/benefits. 1 yr atty. 5 attys including myself, 2 are partners. Defense firm.

$78k after 5 years in 6 attorney PI/Med-Mal plaintiff’s firm (started at $56k). No health benefits, but they were an option if I accepted a lower salary. Firm does 401k matching up to 3%, then matches half the contribution up to 6%. Occasionally there is a 25% of salary profit sharing contribution, but that has been inconsistent in my time there.

Bonuses are the big drawback for me. There is no structure, it is the managing partner’s decision how much you get. The cases I’ve been the primary attorney have often more than tripled my salary, and some years far exceeded that, but rarely does the bonus correlate. Last year I got my first 7 figure result, and my total fees were over a million easy, but the year-end bonus was about 2.5% my salary.

Additionally there’s no structure regarding compensation for bringing in work - most of our work is referred from outside or past clients anyway. Doesn’t bother me, as I don’t have any cases I’ve “brought in,” but it makes me wonder where all the money goes on my cases.

Was in similar camp, raking in the dough for the partners and bonus structure was completely subjective. Brought it up in a meeting with them and subsequently was pariah’d for a few months - apparently they didn’t want to incentivize their people or care about long term of firm. If that is their M.O. so be it, they will kill every golden goose swindled into their pond 😂

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