can you determine small law salary by billable rate? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Since it is nearly impossible to figure out what a small shop pays, I was wondering if their was a standard for how much salary comes from an associates billable rate. For example, I will be interviewing for a position at a small firm (8 attorneys) and I know that the last new grad they hired bills at 200$ an hour (its a small city). I would like to know how much the first year salary is, or ballpark so I can negotiate when asked what my salary expectation is. Is there a standard formula for determining associate salary by way of billing?

Thanks for any help on this

[Anonymous User]

No idea, but for informational purposes I'm an SA at a secondary market, get billed out at around 230, and my salary would come out to be 105. That said its a big firm, and so overhead is split between 600 lawyers so I probably take a (perhaps much) bigger ratio of what I "generate" (lol at any clients who actually pay that rate for me).

Given that its a tiny firm in a small city, I'd say, unless they do fabulously well and you are a great candidate, you'll be looking at between 40-60. Might as well open high.

[Anonymous User]

No idea, but for informational purposes I'm an SA at a secondary market, get billed out at around 230, and my salary would come out to be 105. That said its a big firm, and so overhead is split between 600 lawyers so I probably take a (perhaps much) bigger ratio of what I "generate" (lol at any clients who actually pay that rate for me).

Given that its a tiny firm in a small city, I'd say, unless they do fabulously well and you are a great candidate, you'll be looking at between 40-60. Might as well open high.

A friend at a small firm <50 was making $25/hr and billing $125/hr as an SA.

Edit: 52k/yr pace

[Anonymous User]

No idea, but for informational purposes I'm an SA at a secondary market, get billed out at around 230, and my salary would come out to be 105. That said its a big firm, and so overhead is split between 600 lawyers so I probably take a (perhaps much) bigger ratio of what I "generate" (lol at any clients who actually pay that rate for me).

Given that its a tiny firm in a small city, I'd say, unless they do fabulously well and you are a great candidate, you'll be looking at between 40-60. Might as well open high.

A friend at a small firm <50 was making $25/hr and billing $125/hr as an SA.

Anon above, when I said my salary would come to 105 i meant 105k over the year. The 40-60 was similarly a yearly salary estimate. Sorry for the confusion

[Anonymous User]

Here's a reference point: billing out at about $200/hr, gettin paid about $60-65/hr

[Anonymous User]

No idea, but for informational purposes I'm an SA at a secondary market, get billed out at around 230, and my salary would come out to be 105. That said its a big firm, and so overhead is split between 600 lawyers so I probably take a (perhaps much) bigger ratio of what I "generate" (lol at any clients who actually pay that rate for me).

Given that its a tiny firm in a small city, I'd say, unless they do fabulously well and you are a great candidate, you'll be looking at between 40-60. Might as well open high.

I am SA at a biglaw firm. SA are billed out at 250 and first year salary is 160. I believe first years are billed out at 350 or so.