How much does a first year Big Law partner make (equity and non-equity)? Forum

[Anonymous User]

These people have resumes that the v30s can't get through OCI...

We can disagree about other parts of your post, but it continues to baffle me that people think this matters after a few years into biglaw.

Anyway, I see your point about people leaving to the V30s of the world - but that's when they don't make partner (or don't have a surefire shot). It doesn't follow that CSM/DPW have to offer $2.5m first year partner comp just to stop people from leaving. The $4m+ prospects down the line are probably enticing enough, considering that they "survived" for 8-10 years with way less than that based on the remote potential of making partner.

To be clear, the desirable people you describe have some sick obsession with preftige (not unlike yourself, see resume comment), and probably would stick around at CSM/DPW even for just an extra $100k. What CSM/DPW senior would jump to Goodwin unless Goodwin promised them partnership where CSM/DPW could not or paid them more $$$? Nobody. That is to say, CSM/DPW may want to offer more than the lowly V30s to cut out the later option, but my point still stands that they don't need to be $2m+ just for retention of good seniors. Thus, the $2.5m comp probably has more to do with maximum ratios or something else than it does retention.

The only argument I can see to support your proposition would be if CSM/DPW think seniors will take the firms' business elsewhere if they leave. Then they would need to offer comp that roughly matches what the seniors could get if they truly took away that business. But I highly doubt that's possible with CSM/DPW's clientele.

No, you are wrong. Having been at a v30, every time a v10 associate lateralled in the going assumption was that they were going to be a superstar from day 1, and every time like a rando v100 lateralled in the going assumption was that they were going to be semi-incompetent and require a lot of training.

Very few people have a "surefire" path to partner at DPW/CSM. It is always touch and go, and you aren't sure if it is going to be partner, counsel, an offer to be an associate forever or a swift kick out the door. And the fourth option can be rather bad for your career, so if you are a rando 7th year and Goodwin offers you like a $1mm/year non-equity partnership, with the potential for equity, that can look real attractive. Even more important, the life of a partner at CSM/DPW is absolutely brutal, and part of the pitch of the v30s is that the lifestyle, even as a partner will be better. That and the fact that the top DPW/CSM people are going to be generally more intelligent than a rando Dechert partner, and may think they can leverage that into a bit of slacking and a better lifestyle (though this is probably a vain hope).

You are wrong on the "prestige" thing, a lot of people who stick it out as a 6th year at DPW or whatever don't care about the name all that much, but like having the optionality of being at a top platform, whether it be to land a cushy in-house gig, see if partner at DPW is realistic, or lateral to partnership at Goodwin or whatever. Most people realize that the job really sucks, and long term the name DPW doesn't outweigh cold hard cash.

And lol about random 7th and 8th years stealing business from DPW/CSM. Lol!

[Anonymous User]

We just want to see the captioned datapoints.

No thank you - we will make our own judgements for those data. We cannot care less about these pointless speculative arguments so it will be much appreciated if you folks can take it somewhere else.

MOD NOTE: User stevengnehs outed for anon abuse.

[Anonymous User]

Can confirm the ~$2MM figures for first year equity partner at a number of V10s. As a poster above said, if you doubt this, just call some decent headhunters and they can give you the figures.

Not many senior associates make equity straight out of the gate nowadays. It's hard to justify paying those amounts to someone with 8-9 years experience. Hence you see partner classes with 12th+ year associates/counsel promoted, or you see a large non equity tier. Straight to equity still happens but it's rare.

Google "the Kirkland Effect". This trickles down even to very young partners and gives you a sense of why the V10s need to pay their junior equity partners these amounts.