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Strung along is a funny word to use. Aren't senior associates being paid like 300-500K plus bonus and benefits? Obviously paternship might be better but if you are that hungry for it then you should demand it and if they say no move elsewhere.
I don’t understand why this is a surprise to anyone, though. On track means you haven’t done anything bad and you’re a good attorney. It does not mean you’re a huge business generator who’s going to make partner, and any good midlevel/senior associate knows there’s more to making partner than being a good attorney. I guess firms can be more clear about yelling this in your face, but just look above you - are your seniors all making partner or just some of them?
Also, lateraling to make partner at a smaller firm sounds good in theory, but you generally need to be a business generator there too and often partners at smaller firms make less than senior associates at Cravath scale.
Yeah you can also argue associates are stringing the firm along doing mediocre work and collecting high salaries and bonuses until they get their in house exit or exit to a better firm, if you have that mindset (I don’t).
You can be enough of a value add as a junior/midlevel mediocre associate, so they keep you around until you’re so expensive that it doesn’t make sense to keep you unless you’re great. It’s at will employment, on both sides.
And becoming partner is not necessary or required to be successful. I’m perfectly happy to keep making half a million dollars a year and never make partner and that works at my firm (I realize not everyone is so lucky).
Not everyone is cut out for partner. It’s ok. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad attorney, it means you’re not billing crazy hours and bringing in crazy business generation.
I would happily make 500k as counsel for the rest of my career!
That’s a big fear of mine (though never was really 100% for partnership anyway) - and what exactly is “it”? Feels like it takes so much just to stay on top of things already and to stress about “it” just seems like extra suffering.
OP, I think if you’re one of the associates who has “it”, you know. I think partners can tell whose cut out for partner by the 2nd or 3rd year. That said, I think as folks get more senior they can lose that “it” factor (i.e., they might have the qualities of a really good associate but as they get more senior they have trouble with the aspects that make a good partner). So generally I don’t think you’re safe until the 5th year mark at the earliest. And even if you don’t have that “it” factor, partnership will definitely string you along and try to milk you for all they can get — there’s an economic incentive for them to do so.
I think generally all associates receive the same official treatment (i.e., positive but general reviews, gratitude and platitudes when deserved/needed). The superstars are only differentiated or treated differently when it comes to unofficial feedback (i.e., offhand comments that the associate has what it’s takes to be partner) and other special treatment (e.g., partners stepping in to remove them from bad deals or giving them more difficult tasks or authority to review their peers work, etc.)
@Counsel 1, I’m curious, is there a reason you don’t want to try and shoot for an Equity Partnership?
500K is a lot of money. But if you’re very skilled at the work, from my point of view, as long as you wouldn’t mind doing some BD and more admin work I don’t see the the reason to hold back on not trying to double your salary (or make even more, possibly).
You seem very reasonable so, if you don’t mind sharing, I’d like to hear your thought process on remaining at the counsel level.
I was never a high biller and my impression of other counsel at my firm is they’re not super high billers either (or they’d just go for and make partner). But I definitely work late nights/weekends etc when needed, so partners/clients get (and feel) taken care of. It’s not a 9-5 gig by any measure. Conceivably I could manage a more regular schedule if I was willing to do more work on other peoples deals but my preference is to be in charge of my own deals.
I’d say somewhere between 6-8th year. That’s when you get a good sense of whether someone is just a good baby lawyer or can actually be an owner and generator on their own. That’s assuming the partnership decision is made on those factors. It’s oftentimes not.
At C1: Does that include bonus?
Yes, it’s all-in. Just standard Cravath scale for senior associates.
@Counsel 1
That makes a lot of sense. It you can maintain a schedule that works for your life then I think you’ve found success. I don’t know as many counsels (probably because I’m in a generalist practice) but I’ve observed many senior associates end up billing a ton of hours whether they want to be partner or not. So in my head I had some trouble understanding if you’re going to do the hours anyhow, why not get the benefits? But in your case it sounds to me like you’ve made a very reasonable decision and still have the flexibility to pivot to a different role if you’d like in the future.
FWIW, and this might just be a unique thing about my firm, once noticed that associates who bill 2400-2600 and who spend time on marketing themselves and trying to increase the profile of their group and the firm externally generally do better than people who just put down their nose and grind for 2800+ a year. I think past a certain point more hours aren’t helpful for your case because there will always be younger attorneys in the future who need work but there’s a limited amount of attorneys which the capability to develop new business and ensure critical relationships endure.