WUSTL BigLaw Pay Forum

[2011Law]

How much does biglaw pay in the area around WUSTL, beside Chicago? On wikipedia (the galaxy's most trusted news source) and here I've read that the starting pay for biglaw in the big markets is 160k. Never read it here, but on wiki it says that in most other markets biglaw starts at 145k. Just wondering if you do well enough in WUSTL to get biglaw in the midwest (outside Chicago) if the pay is generally 145k?

[Muenchen]

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[bk1]

http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/cl ... hool=washu

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That's not really what the OP is asking.

The OP wants to know what biglaw pays in STL and other non-Chicago midwest markets that WUSTL places in. This isn't really a WUSTL specific question though the two are related.

[quadsixm]

[]

[stratocophic]

http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/cl ... hool=washu

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That didn't answer his question.

He wanted to know market salary was in midwestern markets other than Chicago.

OP, a St. Louis BigLaw associate told me he started at $110K 3 years ago. No idea what market in St. Louis is now, but presumably about $120K?

http://www.nalpdirectory.com/ is the best place to find that sort of information about firms.

Edit: I think it's more on a firm-by-firm basis than it used to be. E.g., Thompson Coburn is still at 110 but Bryan Cave's up to 125. Must have been some upward pressure recently, IIRC (but I may not) 110 was fairly standard last year.

[2011Law]

Thanks for the input. Just made me a little less happy about the 60k I got from wustl, though I'm still pretty happy about it.

[beachbum]

Thanks for the input. Just made me a little less happy about the 60k I got from wustl, though I'm still pretty happy about it.

To be fair, $110-125k in St. Louis is gonna go a lot farther than $160k in NYC.

[quadsixm]

Thanks for the input. Just made me a little less happy about the 60k I got from wustl, though I'm still pretty happy about it.

To be fair, $110-125k in St. Louis is gonna go a lot farther than $160k in NYC.

Oh, yeah. Think $500/month rent.

[nosaj123]

Here is some data on law firm salaries in St. Louis:
http://www.infirmation.com/shared/searc ... ential_p=t

The data on this site is a few years old and based on a very small sample size, but it can give you an idea of what type of salary you can expect in different cities. It's also interesting to compare the divergence of incomes for experienced employees among firms that all start at market rates.

[jenesaislaw]

For the Class of 2009, as reported to NALP by law schools:

There are no data for St. Louis biglaw, but Missouri biglaw (which (exclusively, probably) includes data points from St. Louis and Kansas City) the 25/50/75 percentiles are 105k/110k/110k, with a range of 100k - 120k, and an average of 109.6k. This includes 82 observations for firms with 251+ lawyers (not necessarily that many in the office).

For 101-250 lawyer firms, it's 60k/100k/105k, 52k - 120k, and 90.6k. Only 13 observations.

For 51-100 lawyer firms, there were only 5 observations, with a median of 60k and an average of 76.3k.

STL has a slightly higher top end, but it's really about the same as KC, so the Missouri data is actionable in my view.