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Hi all,

July 2015 CA Bar passer here. I currently work for a real estate law firm as an associate attorney in the SF Bay Area, but looking around for other opportunities because I'm not completely happy with the setup or the pay.

I've applied to a few different places, but so far, one in-house real estate associate position has really stuck out to me. It's also in the SF Bay Area and they are looking for someone with little experience, but with a strong interest in real estate law. After a 1.5hr phone interview with general counsel at the company, they asked me to think about what I want for salary. Robert Half obviously has a range for this, but I wanted to get some perspective from everyone on TLS. The company does real estate development all over the US and has about 20+ employees.

Any input would be greatly appreciated! In-house counsel seems like it's own category as far as pay goes, so I wanted to make sure the salary I ask for is in range.

They asked you to "think" about it? Or to propose a number?

I don't know proposal you should make, nor do I envy your position. I'd do whatever I could to get them to make the first move. But if push comes to shove and you have to propose a number, I'd unfortunately err on the low side (given relative experience/size of the company).

Best guess: $70k

ETA: Interested, so I took a look, that may be semi-low for SF, but not all that much.

OP here.

Thanks for the response. They want me to come up with a number by the end of the week. I want it to be worthwhile to move from my current firm to this new position, which is why I wanted to get a sense of the salary.

You should propose the lowest number that you would accept then. If they are not willing to meet it, then you would not work there anyways. It's not like you don't have a job now and are desperate.

Curious if anyone has thoughts on whether you should also negotiate/discuss on future pay raises in this type of situation?

I would not start with the lowest number you could possibly accept. That's not good negotiating tactic.


You need to do a little homework here. Are there other attys (present or former) you can talk to? Glass door? Ask HR or the GC how compensation is structured, base plus bonus plus stock or whatever. Get the GC/HRto reveal a little more that way. You could ask what they have budgeted for the position.

Do not lowball yourself but do have a floor in mind and be prepared to walk away.

I saw a posting for a small firm hiring an in-house lawyer, although they wanted 3-5 years of experience, salary range $120-150k. As a biglaw third year, that would be a paycut of approoximately $60k for me.

Anonymous User wrote:I saw a posting for a small firm hiring an in-house lawyer, although they wanted 3-5 years of experience, salary range $120-150k. As a biglaw third year, that would be a paycut of approoximately $60k for me.

Yeah, but, you'd be working like 2/3's the hours right? Or half? Personally, I'd run to an in-house job paying that much as fast as I could.