How and What the Firm Pays Attorneys Depending on Firm Ranking

And then the next one is how the firm pays the attorneys ands benefits. So the first one is a salary, the entry level attorneys. So you can see here, and this is the Mo most important information, I think for a lot of attorneys, but when they're considering the prestige level, but the firm that they wanna work at the first one is the, the lowest ranked attorneys, which are your entry level.

Attorneys are typically at your one firms are gonna be the lowest. So it wouldn't be uncommon for a law firm in Los Angeles to, or a big market to pay its entry level attorneys, very little money, meaning 50,000 or 40,000 or less than you would even expect. Now, they typically will pay more than that, but that's what they can do.


They have consumer facing firms do not have a lot of money coming in most of the time. And when they do have money, it's often in spurts. And so they often will pay the lowest salaries, just. Someone who's working in McDonald's obviously is gonna make this a general rule, less some money than someone who's working in a very fancy restaurant.

You rank at four and five firms will typically pay their entry level attorneys, a [00:01:00] similar amount, meaning they will. They're all on the same pay scale. You have some rank four firms. It may pay a little bit less. If they start paying less, they almost start going down to rank three firm. They're all very competitive with each other, with their salaries and with the information with how they're charging for their services.

That's what happens at your rank four firms and your five firms. You rank three firms are typically gonna be more moderate, so they won't often pay less. Some of them will pay the same salaries since the four and five firms, but they will definitely not always pay the same amount. So you need to understand how that works as well.

But you rank four and five firms, which are the major firms that pay the highest salaries that everyone's trying to work at. Typically pay the highest salaries, which is important. And then you rank three firms are often regional firms. They typically do not have as large clients, their clients are paying lower hourly rates.

And so they typically the salaries are gonna be bottoming. The next thing is the salaries of the three to 10 year attorneys. [00:02:00] Typically what happens at a lot of the firms is they try to be competitive when they hire new people, but then, and so they may publish very high starting salaries. Then what happens is the salaries are much lower later on.

So typically what'll happen is the rank one to two attorneys that the salaries will stay low pretty much for the third, 10 year associate attorneys. But your rank three firms will often keep this the salaries low. By the time someone is a third or fourth year, a regional ranked three firm, they may would a starting salary person would make it a four, five firm.

You rank four and five firms. Some of the four firms that are very good firms. Will pay lower salaries to initial people pay higher salaries to initial people, but then they will pay a lower band of salary as people get more senior. And then it's the same thing with your rank five firms. They will typically always pay very high salaries and by far the highest.

So it's then sometimes the rank five firms, people that are with 10 years would make more than, than the [00:03:00] average partner at many rank three, the income partner attorneys is typically the likely income is going to be the lowest at the one firms, your two and three firms, it's going to be moderate high and highest it, the amount of that income doesn't necessarily matter.

It's always going to be the salary of people is always going to be increasing as you move up the scale. But the rank five firms will always have much higher salaries typically than the average much higher partner salaries and the income than people ranked three or four. Here's another thing what you can see here, and I use this $1 million figure in a, in a way that to help you, but you can see here in terms of, and that's just today's money.

It probably be changed in the future, but you're very low at the one rank firms. As you get into three rank firms, there are some firms where most of the partners make over a million or even more than that. And you rank four firms. Most of the partners will be making over a million dollars and at the five, it's almost, uh, what a certainty for the most part.

And sometimes they have [00:04:00] income things, but. And then same thing here with 2 million, you can see here how that works, that it's the rank three firms it's typically going to be low rank four and five is moderate. So this is that. And the reason this income is important is it shows you how much is left over.

That's one of the reasons that the billing rates are so high, that the sophistication of the work is so high, that the type of work that people should is doing is so high and bang there. And then, then you have individual partners in the firm making over 5 million a year. So I use this figure because as you get up and the, and this is some individual partners, this number is not common, but at your rank five firms, it's almost a certainty that you're gonna have people doing that.

And you're ranked firms. It's pretty much almost guaranteed, but not completely. And then in your rank, three firms it's that the chances are lower. There may be some moderation there, but it's definitely much lower. And sometimes there's firm founders or things that owners that one and two firms that certainly make that kind of [00:05:00] money, but not often, then you have people with 30 million books.

So when you go into big markets like New York and Los Angeles, there are people in a lot of the larger firms that have books like this. This is one of the ways to recognize firms that have a lot of business and a lot of money coming in. And, and so I it's, again, it's, it sounds ludicrous to say 30 million books, but as you get into much larger firms, you typically will see people with those types of books and major cities.

And in certainly in your largest firm, you're going to see people in them. Sometimes those books are maybe inherited, meaning some other partner spent their career building up a bunch of relationships, and then other people ended up taking over that book later. But for the most part, as you get into that, you start seeing that.

And then summer associates is another thing to understand. The best firms will typically want to train the people that are gonna work there and hope that they stay there, the whole career, that they [00:06:00] train them in their culture and everything go going forward into the highest ranked firms. Your fives all have summer associates for the most part, your four firms for the most part, all have them as well as you start getting into three firms, it becomes sometimes, but not always, but a lot of them do.

And the summer associates are really a sign of the maturing of the firm. Firm wanting to have a certain culture, the firm wanting to do things a certain way. And, and so you need to make sure that's just something to be thinking about. Your one or two firms will hire people sometimes there to work there in the summer, but they certainly aren't gonna be paying them high salaries or like other firms do clerkship bonuses, same thing.

Some of your rank three firms will pay clerkship bonuses. Your one on two firms. Not only typically don't have the money, but it's not really that important to them. If you blur for not, and your rank four or five firms almost always and pay clerkship bonuses. Again, it's a sign that they're trying to attract a certain type of person to work in the firm that has stability in relationships and, and it's less transactional motivated.

[00:07:00] And then it's the same thing with your annual bonuses. Most four firms and five firms will pay them. Some rank, three firms will pay them, but not always. And so your rank two firms so often with one firm's and then this is another one for exceeding hourly requirements. I would say that you might even reverse the rank four.

You would have highest is probably, and then the right five would be high. But if you are able to beat certain hourly billing requirements, which are really start only being four and really tracked, and you get into three, four, and five firms. It's very important for that as well. And then benefits, same thing, but your five firms will typically be over the top in terms of their benefits.

Your rank core firms will also have often very good benefits as well. So that's another thing you consider and then paying different amounts to people in different class years. So sometimes a law firm may not have a certain schedule for how they pay people with one year versus five years. And so the it'll almost be they won't be professionally run and that they [00:08:00] typically with, uh, rank one firms that could happen and they may pay people on different things and different ways.

And, but as you get into the rank four and buy firms, it's very rare for them to be paying different amounts. The reason it's not lowest to rank four is they sometimes rank five firms will often not pay certain bonuses for if you build 25 versus 3000 hours or 3000 versus 1800 or whatever, they may not even make those.
 

• Our article Cracking the Legal Fortune: Top 10 Practice Areas with the Highest Salaries further explores which practice areas are most lucrative regardless of firm ranking.

They may just have mandatory glassier bonuses. Rank four firms will be more likely to, to Strat those bonuses.


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About BCG Attorney Search

BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive, while achieving results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.