West Michigan Firms Forum

[Anonymous User]

Fifth year corporate associate at a V100 in a major market considering attempting to lateral back home to Grand Rapids, MI area. There is not much information easily available on firms in that area (e.g., Varnum, Warner, etc.). Looking for salaries information beyond first year, difficulty of lateraling, etc. Thanks for any information or antidotes you may have.

[Anonguy715]

I don't have any info on salaries beyond first year, but I've anecdotally heard that they're a bit below what the Detroit market pays. As for other information, I've also heard that they highly value people who are actually from the area. I remember when I was in law school they were skeptical as to why I wanted to move out to GR, and I grew up in metro Detroit. If GR is home for you, you should definitely have a leg up in lateraling. With that being said, there just isn't much corporate work on the west side of the state. Going from "major market" type work to small market work will be a big adjustment.

[Anonymous User]

I don't have any info on salaries beyond first year, but I've anecdotally heard that they're a bit below what the Detroit market pays. As for other information, I've also heard that they highly value people who are actually from the area. I remember when I was in law school they were skeptical as to why I wanted to move out to GR, and I grew up in metro Detroit. If GR is home for you, you should definitely have a leg up in lateraling. With that being said, there just isn't much corporate work on the west side of the state. Going from "major market" type work to small market work will be a big adjustment.

Got it. Thanks for the response. I was guessing most of the corporate work there would be health care related. What kind of salary increases are market for Detroit?

[Anonguy715]

I don't have any info on salaries beyond first year, but I've anecdotally heard that they're a bit below what the Detroit market pays. As for other information, I've also heard that they highly value people who are actually from the area. I remember when I was in law school they were skeptical as to why I wanted to move out to GR, and I grew up in metro Detroit. If GR is home for you, you should definitely have a leg up in lateraling. With that being said, there just isn't much corporate work on the west side of the state. Going from "major market" type work to small market work will be a big adjustment.

Got it. Thanks for the response. I was guessing most of the corporate work there would be health care related. What kind of salary increases are market for Detroit?

Here's Honigman's compensation: https://www.honigman.com/careers-studen ... efits.html.

Keep in mind, Honigman pays substantially more than everyone else in the Detroit market. Anecdotally, a friend of mine had a first year salary of 115k at Miller Canfield a few years back. Not sure what his exact salary progression has been. From what I've heard from friends, most of the other big Detroit firms start you at 105-120k, with pretty modest increases year to year.

[Johnnybgoode92]

Really tough market to get in.