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2nd year. What’s the typical bonus schedule?
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$80,000 for 1250 hours seems pretty reasonable. The only X factor to me is as has been mentioned by other commenters what the cost of living is.
1250? Seems like you have a lot of room. Create some non discretionary targets based on hours and make that 80 look more attractive.
The other side of the pitch is the actual work-life balance. Yes, you are expected to work, and your hours will change in run-up to major trials, but you can expect for 90%+ of the time to have dinner with your S.O. at a reasonable hour, and be there well before your kids go to bed.
Those benefits and billable hours are really good, in my opinion. The pay is reasonable for what I’ve seen in very small law.
That matches what I had in my 3rd year in a very, very low COL area. Seems low for a higher COL area like you're describing.
Very fair.
I have a pretty similar offer for a 3 attorney firm in Delaware. The biggest incentive for me considering this offer is that I get a portion of my hourly rate on a monthly basis as a bonus on top of other bonuses. Ex: $35/hour of my monthly billable comes directly to me. I also have a higher bonus for weekend billables. (This is all on top of my $80k annual) Im a pretty productive law clerk who just passed the bar exam so I’m confident I can make it work with my COL.
I was originally going to say nope but then I saw that the billable requirement was only 1250 - yes - reasonable.
Reasonable for sure.
Cost of living is big, but I’d also want good bonus opportunities. Other than that, it looks like a very attractive offer.
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Looks very reasonable to me. I’m also at a small family law firm. As others have said, I’d suggest offering a specific bonus metric, and I’d also do some local market research to make sure the comp is suitable for the higher COL. Even if the offer is attractive in terms of what is required, if people can’t afford to live, they will take a higher billing requirement to make enough money. WLB is great, if you can afford to do the living part.
Considering when I worked for a firm that size I made 45k, 1% retirement matching, and no benefits outside of firm malpractice insurance and bar dues in a high COL area, I’m not appalled. That being said, the managing partner there was a crook, and this seems alright given the billable target. I would agree with others that some kind of targeted bonus would help.
Fair
I practice at a big law firm in Baltimore now but have practiced in smaller shops in Baltimore/DC suburbs and do think that the offer is reasonable for the hours, benefits, and opportunity to earn bonuses.
what’s their hourly rate?
The benefits are pretty great.
I'd ask for some sort of metric based bonus based on exceeding hours. I have seen it listed out here before. Let's say you bill out at 150/hr ask for $50 for every hour you exceed or something
Yeah I initially was like this is terrible. But that works out to $64 an hour, which I think is fair. I’d tell the individual that you’ll pay them $64 an hour for every hour billed over the 1250.
Is there a reason your only offering the 1250 hours? I think you may lose people that want a more traditional 1800-2000 hours with a higher salary.
The other side of the pitch, as I just noted above is that I EXPECT the associate the vast majority of days to leave early enough for them to have dinner at home, and see there kids before bedtime. Weekend work should be minimal or only because there is a big trial on Monday/Tuesday.