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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]40 year old EP, DC office of large global firm. Should make about $1.5MM this year and wife hasn’t worked for about 5 years. She takes care of the kids, manages doctors, groceries, housekeeper, and pretty much everything else in our lives. Overall seems to like it, but she would never expect that anyone else would be jealous of that. It’s not like we have enough money to be living a different lifestyle from most in the DMV suburbs.

Only point I wanted to make on this: those who think every biglaw partner is working night and day have no idea what you’re talking about. I bill around 1400 hours per year, have maybe 2000-2100 all in. That’s nothing, basically 40 hours a week. Plenty of colleagues do the same. I almost never work weekends other than maybe an hour of prep and admin Sunday afternoon. Have never missed a vacation, and rarely do more than 3-4 hours of work/calls per trip. I mostly work from home, drive one kid to school every day, cook dinner a lot, have coached multiple teams, and we go camping and hiking as a family all the time. Honestly couldn’t be happier with the balance we’ve got.

Now, I’m never going to be a $5MM-$10MM take home guy. Those folks do tend to work a LOT more, or else they’re either really good at BD or fell ass backwards into a book. But I should be able to run this out in the $1.5-$2.5 range for 20+ years if I wanted to. (I don’t, but nice to know it’s an option.)[/quote]

You are on the chopping block if you are billing 1400 hours and taking in $1.5M. Bad economics for the firm.[/quote]

I expect the PP is likely in a niche DC specialty at a very large and profitable firm based elsewhere, and is allowed to fly under the radar some because his specialty is necessary, the firm is very profitable generally with no major financial issues even during downturns, but they are tucked away in an smaller branch office. $1.5 is high for some firms but would be considered low or middling for some of the tippy top global firms.

I have known partners like this and they have a good gig. It's not standard though. You either have to luck into it or make some very strategic choices early on to make it happen. And even then, there's not a guarantee -- if the firm hits rough waters or your speciality undergoes major shake ups, the whole thing might fall apart.

It's a different story at DC-based firms, or any firm where 1.5m would put you in the top 30% of earners at the firm. People will catch on. Also, this PP should be wary of how merger could impact them. Industry consolidation is heating up again post-Covid and if their firm were to merge even with a boutique or midsize firm that impacted his specialty, they may either have to increase their billables considerably or see a major reduction in take home.[/quote]

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