Page 1 of 1
"How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:25 pm
by king3780
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?
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:29 pm
by Anonymous User
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
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:51 pm
by Anonymous User
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.
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:54 pm
by ran12
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.
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:03 pm
by phillipjg
They're allowed to bill your time during unpaid internships?
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:06 pm
by keg411
phillipjg wrote:They're allowed to bill your time during unpaid internships?
I would guess that's why they "decided" to pay the OP.
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:08 pm
by Helmholtz
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
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:08 pm
by Anonymous User
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.
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:09 pm
by king3780
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.
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:10 pm
by king3780
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?
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:11 pm
by ran12
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.
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:12 pm
by rayiner
$20. $10 sounds too low, $30 sounds too high, and between that you're just negotiating.
Re: "How much should we pay you?"
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:15 pm
by Anonymous User
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.