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Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:40 am
by citrus2010
I know associate salaries are somewhat easy to find, but at these firms that start around $90,000 - $120,000 for first year associates and climb slowly through the first 5 or so years, what do partners make? Just curiously looking for an average of what a good lawyer in a good firm makes after 15 years.

Thanks!

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:45 am
by loveistheway
millions

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:51 am
by citrus2010
How accurate and realistic! Thanks. :) Give me some believable numbers. An average means averaging all partners. Not the top 1%.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:53 am
by richmondguy3000
NICE!!! I used to work in a big accounting firm and partners started at 280K - most of them maxing out at 500k at retirement time. I am glad I am going to law school as if and when I make a partner those tuition dollars will pay a 100 fold.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:55 am
by loveistheway
I only know one partner...ex-partner. He recently left his post a senior partner of M & A to go work in investment banking. For his firm, entry level partners were pushing a million, he was significantly north of that.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:58 am
by citrus2010
A million!? NYC?

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:59 am
by Renaixença
richmondguy3000 wrote:NICE!!! I used to work in a big accounting firm and partners started at 280K - most of them maxing out at 500k at retirement time. I am glad I am going to law school as if and when I make a partner those tuition dollars will pay a 100 fold.
Image

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:07 am
by Renzo
citrus2010 wrote:I know associate salaries are somewhat easy to find, but at these firms that start around $90,000 - $120,000 for first year associates and climb slowly through the first 5 or so years, what do partners make? Just curiously looking for an average of what a good lawyer in a good firm makes after 15 years.

Thanks!
The biglaw firms almost all announce per partner profits, because it's a huge mine-is-bigger-than-yours competition (just like everything else in biglaw). Some are as high as 3 million/yr (+), most are around a million. But this doesn't usually count non-equity partners, and the equity partners may or may not actually take home all those profits.

I don't know of any midlaw firms that announce PPP, because they don't usually succumb to the chest-puffing that the big firms do, so finding out info for the firms you're asking about will probably be impossible.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:17 am
by citrus2010
That's why I was asking. I researched some, but to no avail. I'm assuming someone knows a parter in a midsize firm that isn't entirely closed up about his earnings. Something!

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:39 am
by Renaixença
citrus2010 wrote:That's why I was asking. I researched some, but to no avail. I'm assuming someone knows a parter in a midsize firm that isn't entirely closed up about his earnings. Something!
I know two partners in California. They both make around $70,000 each.

They're not the lawyering kind of partners, though.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:42 am
by jtoppe2
Renaixença wrote:
citrus2010 wrote:That's why I was asking. I researched some, but to no avail. I'm assuming someone knows a parter in a midsize firm that isn't entirely closed up about his earnings. Something!
I know two partners in California. They both make around $70,000 each.

They're not the lawyering kind of partners, though.

hahahhahahaha

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:43 am
by citrus2010
Best post of the evening! Thanks.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:48 am
by RVP11
This is a little old, but here you go:

http://www.law.com/special/professional ... 0_ppp.html

Many/most partners don't earn "salaries." If they do, their salaries are often lower than a first year associate's.

Typically an equity partner's pay is the total of their draws that year minus their investments in the firm. Some firms require partners to pay in quite a bit, some don't. But PPP is still a decent barometer of what the average equity partner at a given firm is making.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 2:24 am
by Renzo
JSUVA2012 wrote:This is a little old, but here you go:

http://www.law.com/special/professional ... 0_ppp.html

Many/most partners don't earn "salaries." If they do, their salaries are often lower than a first year associate's.

Typically an equity partner's pay is the total of their draws that year minus their investments in the firm. Some firms require partners to pay in quite a bit, some don't. But PPP is still a decent barometer of what the average equity partner at a given firm is making.
I was going to bitch that those were 10 years old, but at as far as the V50 firms, they are pretty close to what's been announced for last year. I'll bet some of the 100-200 firms (likely to be the firms OP was asking about) are doing a little better these days.

Re: Partner salary

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 2:31 am
by msbeautifulbasham
Renaixença wrote:
citrus2010 wrote:That's why I was asking. I researched some, but to no avail. I'm assuming someone knows a parter in a midsize firm that isn't entirely closed up about his earnings. Something!
I know two partners in California. They both make around $70,000 each.

They're not the lawyering kind of partners, though.
Hahahhaaha!! Thanks for the laugh. Perfect response!