"How much should we pay you?" Forum

king3780 · Post by **king3780** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:25 pm

Okay, so I'm a rising 3L working at a small firm in a rural area. I'm doing a split internship this summer; I worked for a judge the first half of the summer and I'm in week 3 of 6 at the firm. The senior associate who hired me was very explicit before I started that this was an unpaid internship. Two of the partners called me into one of their offices to tell me they decided they'd like to pay me, but have no idea how much because they don't usually hire interns. They told me to think it over and let them know. I really have no idea how much to ask for. I don't know of any other firms in the area that even have interns this summer. For frame of reference, a new attorney here bills at $135/hr. They're billing my time at $90/hr. How much should I ask for? Or, any ideas on how to figure out a reasonable number when there are no peers in the area to talk to?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:29 pm

I'm at a small firm in DC and they bill me out at like 100-150 depending on the project. I get the equivalent of about 1/4 of the rate as my hourly pay. HTH

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:51 pm

On those numbers, I would ask for somewhere around $25/hr, I think. Do you know how much the attorneys get paid? You could calculate a ratio to billing from that.

ran12 · Post by **ran12** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:54 pm

They put you in an awkward position b/c the internship wasn't supposed to be paid so now that they want to pay you, they might balk at giving you 25% of the billable rate.

phillipjg · Post by **phillipjg** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:03 pm

They're allowed to bill your time during unpaid internships?

keg411 · Post by **keg411** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:06 pm

phillipjg wrote:They're allowed to bill your time during unpaid internships?

I would guess that's why they "decided" to pay the OP.

Post by **Helmholtz** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:08 pm

keg411 wrote:
phillipjg wrote:They're allowed to bill your time during unpaid internships?
I would guess that's why they "decided" to pay the OP.

haha +1

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:08 pm

if you asked for 20% of the gross, you'd be getting about $22 an hour. That seems reasonable to me. If you are nervous, and want to lowball yourself, ask for 20.

king3780 · Post by **king3780** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:09 pm

keg411 wrote:
phillipjg wrote:They're allowed to bill your time during unpaid internships?
I would guess that's why they "decided" to pay the OP.

Yeah, I don't think they originally planned on billing my time to clients. They haven't had an intern for a few years, so they're kind of figuring out as we go along.

king3780 · Post by **king3780** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:10 pm

Anonymous User wrote:if you asked for 20% of the gross, you'd be getting about $22 an hour. That seems reasonable to me. If you are nervous, and want to lowball yourself, ask for 20.

$20 per regular hour or billable hour?

ran12 · Post by **ran12** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:11 pm

You need to anchor high so give them a number at least 20% higher than what you expect or want to get. Could get lucky and they'll give you that or still a little higher than your real asking price.

rayiner · Post by **rayiner** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:12 pm

$20. $10 sounds too low, $30 sounds too high, and between that you're just negotiating.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:15 pm

Seems like a value question to me. Sure, you are an intern but the quality of
your work must be pretty good for them to offer to pay you.
With that said $20-$30 is a "fair" range, $25 per hour sounds about right based on the information provided in this thread.
You shouldn't cheat yourself. If you ask for $30, I'll bet you get no less than $20.

Bottom line, you may be an intern, but the quality of your work speaks for itself.

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