A Tax LLM's Big4 Salary Trajectory Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm starting with a big four m&a office in NYC. The offer is 125k base 15k signing bonus and 5k bonus for passing the bar (assuming I actually pass). I also guess that on the low end, I'll get 2k-5k year end bonus, but I'm not sure if that's the case in the first year? So in the first year I'll end up netting 145-150k.

But I'm curious about salary trajectory. In the second year, assuming an 8% raise from the base salary (making my second year base salary equal to 135k) and a 5k bonus, I'll make 140k in my second year. Is that accurate? Seems like a pretty bad deal to have your gross income decrease in your second year of employment. Am I missing something?

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I'm a jd/llm.

Just my personal anecdotal experience in Big 4 international in NYC, but I agree on the 2k-5k first year bonus. M&A I think does just a *little* better than international, but not much. With respect to salary, the progression is really not great for JD/LLMs, because there is salary "compression" with regular JDs. I.e., people of the same level converge toward each other in salary over the years regardless of education. I don't know any JD/LLM who got more than a 7% raise from year 1 -> year 2. Lots were in the 4-5% range. Your base is very unlikely to exceed 155-160k until you make manager (after ~4 years).

[smokeylarue]

I'm starting with a big four m&a office in NYC. The offer is 125k base 15k signing bonus and 5k bonus for passing the bar (assuming I actually pass). I also guess that on the low end, I'll get 2k-5k year end bonus, but I'm not sure if that's the case in the first year? So in the first year I'll end up netting 145-150k.

But I'm curious about salary trajectory. In the second year, assuming an 8% raise from the base salary (making my second year base salary equal to 135k) and a 5k bonus, I'll make 140k in my second year. Is that accurate? Seems like a pretty bad deal to have your gross income decrease in your second year of employment. Am I missing something?

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I'm a jd/llm.

Your signing bonus and bar passage bonus are obviously one time bonuses so obviously you shouldn't count them for purposes of raises.

[Anonymous User]

I'm starting with a big four m&a office in NYC. The offer is 125k base 15k signing bonus and 5k bonus for passing the bar (assuming I actually pass). I also guess that on the low end, I'll get 2k-5k year end bonus, but I'm not sure if that's the case in the first year? So in the first year I'll end up netting 145-150k.

But I'm curious about salary trajectory. In the second year, assuming an 8% raise from the base salary (making my second year base salary equal to 135k) and a 5k bonus, I'll make 140k in my second year. Is that accurate? Seems like a pretty bad deal to have your gross income decrease in your second year of employment. Am I missing something?

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I'm a jd/llm.

Your signing bonus and bar passage bonus are obviously one time bonuses so obviously you shouldn't count them for purposes of raises.

You're right. I didn't count them when calculating my base salary for the second year (I calculated the 8% raise from my first year base salary of 125k). Maybe I'm wrong, but I think you mean that I shouldn't count the bonuses as part of my first year gross income when comparing my first year GI to my second year GI?

[Anonymous User]

I'm starting with a big four m&a office in NYC. The offer is 125k base 15k signing bonus and 5k bonus for passing the bar (assuming I actually pass). I also guess that on the low end, I'll get 2k-5k year end bonus, but I'm not sure if that's the case in the first year? So in the first year I'll end up netting 145-150k.

But I'm curious about salary trajectory. In the second year, assuming an 8% raise from the base salary (making my second year base salary equal to 135k) and a 5k bonus, I'll make 140k in my second year. Is that accurate? Seems like a pretty bad deal to have your gross income decrease in your second year of employment. Am I missing something?

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I'm a jd/llm.

Just my personal anecdotal experience in Big 4 international in NYC, but I agree on the 2k-5k first year bonus. M&A I think does just a *little* better than international, but not much. With respect to salary, the progression is really not great for JD/LLMs, because there is salary "compression" with regular JDs. I.e., people of the same level converge toward each other in salary over the years regardless of education. I don't know any JD/LLM who got more than a 7% raise from year 1 -> year 2. Lots were in the 4-5% range. Your base is very unlikely to exceed 155-160k until you make manager (after ~4 years).

Thanks a lot! I was really curious what the range for the yearly raise is. From what I've read and heard from others, you're absolutely correct about base salary not exceeding 155-160k until reaching manager.

[2013]

Apparently NY M&A releases the average ranges #s by position. If I remember correctly, my friend said:

Associate is 120-130
Senior associate is 130-150
Manager is 180-230
Director is 250-300-something
Partner is 1.1M

From what I understand, everyone makes it to manager if they stay. But manager to director is a big jump and director to partner is nearly impossible.

[nealric]

Apparently NY M&A releases the average ranges #s by position. If I remember correctly, my friend said:

Associate is 120-130
Senior associate is 130-150
Manager is 180-230
Director is 250-300-something
Partner is 1.1M

From what I understand, everyone makes it to manager if they stay. But manager to director is a big jump and director to partner is nearly impossible.

Manager also tends to be the point where people jump to industry. It's the sweet spot where clients trust that you know what you are doing, but you aren't so senior that the number of available positions is tiny.