Big law - salaries

[Anonymous]

If you are in a V100 firm and bring in between $3-4 million a year how much would you expect to be paid?

[Anonymous]

For an equity partner, 33% or 1 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For an equity partner, 33% or 1 million.

What if you are a non-equity partner and have low hours (only around 1200-1300 billable hours for the year but 300+ pro bono hours)?

[Anonymous]

If you bill 1200 hours you expect to get fired.

[Anonymous]

I can’t speak to the deal side, but for litigation that’s a very low number for hours. I would assume about 20% in origination credit, so $600k-$800k, plus equity share in the firm maybe gets you to $1m.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you bill 1200 hours you expect to get fired.

Even if you bring in $3-4 million that year?

[Anonymous]

Non-equity at 1300 hours billable I would assume you are either semi-retired or about to be fired. On the high end I would expect $750k base comp and no bonus.

[Anonymous]

This is the first year ever with such low hours. Lots of pro bono work, slow deal work, and a lot of business development/traveling to see and meet clients. A bit worried about the low hours though.

[Anonymous]

It’s hard for me to conceptualize originating $3m in business and only billing 1300 yourself. Is the business litigation while you are dealing with-side? What’s the time frame on the business? If it’s a one-off ending this year, I would be concerned. If it’s long-term or renewable, your comp may be low (less than $1m), but they should keep you for the business potential.

All of this assumes the business is actually yours and not shared or legacy from an existing partner. Not to be harsh, but you need to look critically at whether the firm will see your long term value-add.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s hard for me to conceptualize originating $3m in business and only billing 1300 yourself. Is the business litigation while you are dealing with-side? What’s the time frame on the business? If it’s a one-off ending this year, I would be concerned. If it’s long-term or renewable, your comp may be low (less than $1m), but they should keep you for the business potential.

All of this assumes the business is actually yours and not shared or legacy from an existing partner. Not to be harsh, but you need to look critically at whether the firm will see your long term value-add.

Yes all the business is mine and not shared/legacy. Some of the business is actually larger but my sole origination is around $3-4 million. Just brought in another client who will be around $1-2 million a year next year.

I do some of the work but farm out a lot of it due to subject matter expertise. Am managing the day to day relationship on my clients however.

[Anonymous]

How many billable hours do partners typically do in most firms? Between 1500-1800 a year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For an equity partner, 33% or 1 million.

What if you are a non-equity partner and have low hours (only around 1200-1300 billable hours for the year but 300+ pro bono hours)?

$450

[Anonymous]

I’m confused why firm’s wouldn’t want to keep someone who originates $4million a year and therefore is clearly profitable for them.

[Anonymous]

DH is an equity partner at a smallish-med firm and in a typical year he brings home nearly 50% of the revenue he generates. They have different “buckets” for credit of who originates, who is responsible for, and who actually bills the work. So if you brought the client in, but DH actually managed the deal and did a lot of the billing (due to subject matter knowledge) you would only get a portion of the credit.

Also, how much of the work has actually been done OP? Sounds like some of the work is occurring in the future which would not count. The money has to be collected first. You sound new to the law firm world - did you come from Gov?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH is an equity partner at a smallish-med firm and in a typical year he brings home nearly 50% of the revenue he generates. They have different “buckets” for credit of who originates, who is responsible for, and who actually bills the work. So if you brought the client in, but DH actually managed the deal and did a lot of the billing (due to subject matter knowledge) you would only get a portion of the credit.

Also, how much of the work has actually been done OP? Sounds like some of the work is occurring in the future which would not count. The money has to be collected first. You sound new to the law firm world - did you come from Gov?

This is work that has already been billed this year. Also have work in the pipeline for next year.

My firm also has origination credit, who is responsible for the work and who actually bills the work. New to partner world and being responsible for bringing in own business and revenue. Firm is not very transparent in terms of comp.