LEGAL SALARY DATAPOINTS Forum

[Anonymous User]

Location: NYC
Position: Credit and equity investing
Experience: Class of 2017, K-JD.
Salary: 150k base + 225k bonus. Abnormally good year - 175k base next year, but expect bonus to be slightly under 100% and hopefully receive 100k - 200k in dollarized carry next year.
Hours: Varies, ~45 - 80+. Average around 60.

Changed jobs to an event driven HF, focus on activism, distressed credit, merger arbitrage, and litigation finance.
Salary: 160k base target bonus 400k, lots of variability.
Experience: Class of 2017, K-JD, special situations investing 3 years, lawyer 2 years.
Hours: Average 55.
Stress: High AF.

How does one break into this sort of role? Off the bat I figured they'd look for a finance associate, but the mix of work you mentioned can't be had at any firm so it got me thinking... are these places open to train? I'm an in-house lawyer with a biglaw background wondering if a switch is possible

Restructuring IBD > Any IBD > Restructuring biglaw > corporate biglaw.

On the HF side every fund is training you to an extent but they don’t want to be training you on how a balance sheet works. Quite a few buyside head hunters told me to go to like a Houlihan for 2 years and then move to a fund.

PE platforms with special sits arms are more willing to train but also are likely a bit more inflexible with hiring hierarchy, where you likely take a pay cut from biglaw going over.

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2018, Corp. Counsel:

Base: 230k
Bonus: 20%
401k: 4%
Initial RSUs: 180k (4 yr. vest)
Long Term RSUs: $100k per year (3 yr. vest)
Industry: Life Sciences

Class of 2017 looking to make a move into pharma/biotech in the next year or so. Would love to hear more about how you found the role and the type of work you were doing in biglaw before. Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

15+ year lawyer.
AUSA in a 9th or 10th Circuit state, not an expensive city.
Salary: 150K+.
Hours: 9-5 unless trial or an appeal is looming.

Vacation: 3-4 weeks per year (varies according to seniority). Being AUSAs, when we travel with family for fun we're not even allowed to bring work with us unless strict protocols are followed. So vacation means vacation.

Practice area: fun as all hell and not a boring day to be had. Constitutional stuff. Very important cases. Social issues. Political issues. Stuff that matters. I've argued many times before the ___ Circuit. Doubt I'll ever stop doing this.

[Anonymous User]

Experience: 8 years of experience that includes legal (but not big law) and JD preferred jobs in compliance and at a big 4 doing regulatory consulting
Job: Attorney at financial regulator (Fed, FDIC, SEC, CFTC…)
Salary: $152,000
Benefits: 8% TSP match, healthcare subsidy, transportation subsidy, student loan repayment (don’t need), flex work schedule after probation, pension if I stay (but paying 4.4% into it)
Location: DC

These in-house salaries seem really low. Like wtf low. Maybe doing consulting at a big 4 showed a lot of exit ops that seemed to pay more.

Is FAANG the only way to hit $300,000+ in-house with a 40-50 hour work week? Does anyone think firms raising salaries will cause in-house roles to raise salaries? At this rate, it seems like going back to the big 4 job would be better than going in-house…. Really regretting not pulling the trigger an an MBA/MA in analytics post-JD.

[Anonymous User]

7th year. 205k, annual discretionary bonus (likely around 20k-ish). So like, 225k. New York, entertainment industry.

Stable hours, evenings and weekends off, place isn't known for great comp but it's a household name and a cool place to work.

Benefits are much better. Like, better health insurance and costs like 10k less per year. So can rationalize it that way.

Still, I have the lowest comp of anyone I personally know who went in-house at a private company at this seniority. But it has very low turnover and everyone seems happy to work there (a welcome change from the vibes at a biglaw office..).

[Anonymous User]

Posted previously in this thread but can't seem to find it, and have a newish role so I thought I'd update.

9-10 years out of LS.
Lead a compliance team at a F500 (but not the CCO)
Base: 260k
Bonus: ~100k
RSUs: not a huge part of our comp, maybe 60-80k with a 3 year vest
Hours: 8-5:30 with some random early/late calls once or twice a week. Weekends are totally protected, I very rarely even get emails after Friday at 4 until Monday morning, and when I do, they're mostly from outside counsel and not the business.

Was in white collar biglaw for 5-6 years and had another in-house role before moving into this role. My next step up here at the company, in 2 years or so, will push me over 500k with excellent WLB.

There's some perceived risk that you get "stuck" in compliance, but I think this risk is a lot lower if you come in at a more senior role - I get regularly recruited for both senior legal and compliance roles.

[Anonymous User]

Posted previously in this thread but can't seem to find it, and have a newish role so I thought I'd update.

9-10 years out of LS.
Lead a compliance team at a F500 (but not the CCO)
Base: 260k
Bonus: ~100k
RSUs: not a huge part of our comp, maybe 60-80k with a 3 year vest
Hours: 8-5:30 with some random early/late calls once or twice a week. Weekends are totally protected, I very rarely even get emails after Friday at 4 until Monday morning, and when I do, they're mostly from outside counsel and not the business.

Was in white collar biglaw for 5-6 years and had another in-house role before moving into this role. My next step up here at the company, in 2 years or so, will push me over 500k with excellent WLB.

There's some perceived risk that you get "stuck" in compliance, but I think this risk is a lot lower if you come in at a more senior role - I get regularly recruited for both senior legal and compliance roles.

Do you mind sharing industry and location? I posted about the OCC/FDIC/SEC job earlier and will considered compliance exit ops in the future. Seems like good comp if outside NYC/SF with great upward mobility opportunities. Anything in practice you did to help set you up for a job like this?

[Anonymous User]

Knowledge Management & Innovation Attorney. 7 years out of law school, big law, NYC area.

208k base, 10-20k discretionary bonus.

[Anonymous User]

Posted previously in this thread but can't seem to find it, and have a newish role so I thought I'd update.

9-10 years out of LS.
Lead a compliance team at a F500 (but not the CCO)
Base: 260k
Bonus: ~100k
RSUs: not a huge part of our comp, maybe 60-80k with a 3 year vest
Hours: 8-5:30 with some random early/late calls once or twice a week. Weekends are totally protected, I very rarely even get emails after Friday at 4 until Monday morning, and when I do, they're mostly from outside counsel and not the business.

Was in white collar biglaw for 5-6 years and had another in-house role before moving into this role. My next step up here at the company, in 2 years or so, will push me over 500k with excellent WLB.

There's some perceived risk that you get "stuck" in compliance, but I think this risk is a lot lower if you come in at a more senior role - I get regularly recruited for both senior legal and compliance roles.

Do you mind sharing industry and location? I posted about the OCC/FDIC/SEC job earlier and will considered compliance exit ops in the future. Seems like good comp if outside NYC/SF with great upward mobility opportunities. Anything in practice you did to help set you up for a job like this?

Broadly, tech. Major non-NYC/SF market.

Easiest way into these roles is to come from a background of doing internal/government investigations work, especially if you've done a lot of interviewing, and/or regulatory litigation and guidance. I would say that everyone on my team who spent time in biglaw has one or both of those skill sets, though I wouldn't say it's necessary that they have them in our specific industry. We've hired employment investigators, privacy lawyers, etc., even though that's not really the scope of this work. Outside of a few very specific legal roles, both my companies have hired for broad skill sets rather than subject matter expertise.

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2021
Midlaw (~100 attorneys)
Tertiary market, extremely low COL city in west/mountain west
$140,000 / $5k bonus per quarter for meeting hour requirement (2000 a year) / discretionary year end bonus
401k dollar for dollar with no cap. Profit share as well. Fairly regular other benefits

[Anonymous User]

Experience: 10 years+, but first few years in shitlaw.
Location: Large Metro/HCOL
Employer: Fortune 300, financial services (non-banking)
Comp: $180K base, 35% bonus, 5% stock, 5% profit sharing. Total Comp ~$260k
Hours: 40 hours. No late nights or weekends. Great work/life balance.
Corporate generalist (contracts, governance, compliance, etc.)

[Anonymous User]

Let's say you hang around a V20 for 10 years and get told, as it seems so many do, that you're not going to make partner, but they offer you to hang around permanently as of counsel, a non-equity partner, or whatever other term they might have. What kind of compensation are you typically looking at in that role?

[Anonymous User]

Let's say you hang around a V20 for 10 years and get told, as it seems so many do, that you're not going to make partner, but they offer you to hang around permanently as of counsel, a non-equity partner, or whatever other term they might have. What kind of compensation are you typically looking at in that role?

At my firm (which only has equity), the long term associate-like role comes with base and bonus that's roughly commensurate with what the highest level senior associates make. Last year that would be roughly $125k-$135k + $415k-$425k = $540k-$560k, plus any additional hours/performance bonuses. That sounds like a sweet deal if you only have to work 2000 hours, but I know lots of folks in that role come in well above that.

[Anonymous User]

Let's say you hang around a V20 for 10 years and get told, as it seems so many do, that you're not going to make partner, but they offer you to hang around permanently as of counsel, a non-equity partner, or whatever other term they might have. What kind of compensation are you typically looking at in that role?

At my firm (which only has equity), the long term associate-like role comes with base and bonus that's roughly commensurate with what the highest level senior associates make. Last year that would be roughly $125k-$135k + $415k-$425k = $540k-$560k, plus any additional hours/performance bonuses. That sounds like a sweet deal if you only have to work 2000 hours, but I know lots of folks in that role come in well above that.

I'm in house now, so I guess it's purely out of curiosity, but how common is the permanent associate really? I was at two V20 firms and I can only think of one person who I knew to be in a permanent, senior, non-equity role. All the other super-senior associates/counsel were still trying and hoping to become partners, at least as far as I could tell. I'm not trying to gaslight this whole phenomenon, but my impression was that this situation is pretty unusual? I was M&A, so maybe it just wasn't in my visibility so much.

[Anonymous User]

F500 Company, Texas. Pretty much 9-5 with some travel.

Base: $225k
Target Bonus, 25% of base
Target Equity, 30% of base
Pension, 8% of base

10-15 years out of T14 school, a few years in biglaw

[Anonymous User]

Experience: Class of 2020, 2 years clerking, 1 year practicing.
Location: V100, regional office/small market.
Comp: $135K, hours based bonus.

Thinking of lateraling to larger market for higher comp, but hours right now aren't too bad. Doing general lit, but want to specialize in something and/or get more transactional work.

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2017, R&W Underwriter

Base: 380k
Bonus: 25%
Hours: Better than biglaw but can definitely still be long. Fair amount of evening work, but weekends are generally clear
Industry: R&W insurance

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2014 - Tech
Base: 390k
Equity: $250K - $300K vests annually
Hours: 9-5

[fmrez]

Class of 2014 - Tech
Base: 390k
Equity: $250K - $300K vests annually
Hours: 9-5

Wow 390k in tech is extraordinary. I'm in house currently and considering a move for comp reasons - can you provide more information like role, size of company, years at company or DM me? Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2014 - Tech
Base: 390k
Equity: $250K - $300K vests annually
Hours: 9-5

Wow 390k in tech is extraordinary. I'm in house currently and considering a move for comp reasons - can you provide more information like role, size of company, years at company or DM me? Thanks!

Sure - I do corporate work, I’ve been at the company about 2 years, it’s a public company but only went public a couple years ago. Honestly from my conversations with people I really don’t think it’s unusual in tech so long as your aren’t a commercial attorney

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2017, R&W Underwriter

Base: 380k
Bonus: 25%
Hours: Better than biglaw but can definitely still be long. Fair amount of evening work, but weekends are generally clear
Industry: R&W insurance

Incredible! I’m moving to the brokerage side of RWI and tax insurance later this month. My base is 225 and my bonus is 100. Never realized the underwriting side paid so well.

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2017, R&W Underwriter

Base: 380k
Bonus: 25%
Hours: Better than biglaw but can definitely still be long. Fair amount of evening work, but weekends are generally clear
Industry: R&W insurance

Incredible! I’m moving to the brokerage side of RWI and tax insurance later this month. My base is 225 and my bonus is 100. Never realized the underwriting side paid so well.

I'm on the brokerage side and am paid in line with the underwriter above. All depends on the shop

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2017, R&W Underwriter

Base: 380k
Bonus: 25%
Hours: Better than biglaw but can definitely still be long. Fair amount of evening work, but weekends are generally clear
Industry: R&W insurance

Incredible! I’m moving to the brokerage side of RWI and tax insurance later this month. My base is 225 and my bonus is 100. Never realized the underwriting side paid so well.

I'm on the brokerage side and am paid in line with the underwriter above. All depends on the shop

I am on the legal side at a carrier working with some RW issues and am at $190K +35% bonus - the UWS make more than me with bonus. Base is around the same.

[Anonymous User]

Class of 2017 - Regulatory Specialist, NYC
Base: 190
Bonus: 40
Signing: 100 in cash/stock
Other: Probably another 15 in additional benefits - 401k match, etc.
Industry: Manufacturing
Hours 9-5 at most

Pay is not as much as tech or finance but I think the lifestyle is proportionally better from what I've heard from many folks.

[Anonymous User]

6th year corp associate at a V10. Considering two separate offers, and very torn:

Option 1:
Location: NYC
Position: M&A, finance industry
Hours: Unclear. I've been told "better than biglaw, but definitely not a 9-5". I expect frequent night and weekend work.
Comp: 300k base, 50% bonus, all-in = 450k

Option 2:
Location: Full remote
Position: Counsel for startup
Hours: 9-5, no weekends.
Comp: 180k base, 15% bonus, all-in = 207k

Having a very hard time with this decision. The comp difference is massive, but that might be offset by the cost of living and taxes in NYC, and also a true full remote 9-5 seems like a rare lifestyle opportunity.

For option 2, what is the equity component? No reason to take that kind of comp unless you are getting serious upside potential with equity. In these two - I would take the second option if there is a potential windfall with equity and you believed in the company, if not, option 1 is fine if you already live/want to live in NYC, if not I would wait for the next one.

Curious which one you ended up taking and the WLB. Has it been manageable or as bad as biglaw? Also, how did you find this position? That comp is amazing!