Let's talk in-house salaries Forum

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:11 pm

I haven't seen any L&E-specific in-house practitioners on here. Any L&E in-house counsel willing to provide info (i.e., location, company size, salary, bonus, hours, benefits, etc.)? I am looking into going in-house and would love to have some data points. TIA!

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 1:19 pm

Recently moved in-house from biglaw (was at firm for 3 years) - TX.
Energy
Base: $175,000
Bonus (target): $50k
RSU (4 year vesting schedule): $50k

No 401K match and medical/benefits cost is same as it was at firm.
Hours: 8:30-6:00 (sometimes earlier rarely later)
Sometimes work at night to catch up, have not had to work over the weekend yet. Been a good move so far, like all the people I work with.

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smokeylarue

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by smokeylarue » Fri Aug 24, 2018 2:48 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Recently moved in-house from biglaw (was at firm for 3 years) - TX.
Energy
Base: $175,000
Bonus (target): $50k
RSU (4 year vesting schedule): $50k

No 401K match and medical/benefits cost is same as it was at firm.
Hours: 8:30-6:00 (sometimes earlier rarely later)
Sometimes work at night to catch up, have not had to work over the weekend yet. Been a good move so far, like all the people I work with.
Dude this seems crazy. 275k? This is more than what 3rd year associates make in Biglaw. Won the lottery my friend.

Neff

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Neff » Fri Aug 24, 2018 3:19 pm

smokeylarue wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Recently moved in-house from biglaw (was at firm for 3 years) - TX.
Energy
Base: $175,000
Bonus (target): $50k
RSU (4 year vesting schedule): $50k

No 401K match and medical/benefits cost is same as it was at firm.
Hours: 8:30-6:00 (sometimes earlier rarely later)
Sometimes work at night to catch up, have not had to work over the weekend yet. Been a good move so far, like all the people I work with.
Dude this seems crazy. 275k? This is more than what 3rd year associates make in Biglaw. Won the lottery my friend.
This is above average for TX O&G, but not that unusual. One Sr associate at my firm got a GC (not AGC) offer. $600K. If you can put up with living in Houston this is your reward. Better than being lower middle class in NYC/Bay Area.

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 3:34 pm

I've been in-house for 1.5 years, direct from law school.

$160k
<5% Bonus
4% 401k match
Various other benefits (Student loan repayment, stock purchase plan, HSA, etc.)

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Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 3:43 pm

Neff wrote:
smokeylarue wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Recently moved in-house from biglaw (was at firm for 3 years) - TX.
Energy
Base: $175,000
Bonus (target): $50k
RSU (4 year vesting schedule): $50k

No 401K match and medical/benefits cost is same as it was at firm.
Hours: 8:30-6:00 (sometimes earlier rarely later)
Sometimes work at night to catch up, have not had to work over the weekend yet. Been a good move so far, like all the people I work with.
Dude this seems crazy. 275k? This is more than what 3rd year associates make in Biglaw. Won the lottery my friend.
This is above average for TX O&G, but not that unusual. One Sr associate at my firm got a GC (not AGC) offer. $600K. If you can put up with living in Houston this is your reward. Better than being lower middle class in NYC/Bay Area.
I guess its not exactly $275 a year because of the 4 year vest on stock, so at any point when I leave, I give us all the unvested units (which could be a significant amount of money). I agree this was an awesome offer, this was basically put in my lap by a client I had done a ton of work with. I haven't heard of a midlevel getting much more, but it also didn't blow the other offers I had heard of away. Had a couple senior associates get the GC gig in their 8th-9th year at the firm with similar ($600k+ pay range). Reason I took it is hoping I could make the jump to GC somewhere in the next 5-6 years while having a better quality of life. Also, LOL at "if you can put up with living in Houston"

Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 3:46 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I've been in-house for 1.5 years, direct from law school.

$160k
<5% Bonus
4% 401k match
Various other benefits (Student loan repayment, stock purchase plan, HSA, etc.)
WOW! That's pretty impressive. Is it a transactions role?

Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 3:52 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:I've been in-house for 1.5 years, direct from law school.

$160k
<5% Bonus
4% 401k match
Various other benefits (Student loan repayment, stock purchase plan, HSA, etc.)
WOW! That's pretty impressive. Is it a transactions role?
IP. We also hire into our M&A group and our litigation group directly from law school. Usually 3 or 4 new attorneys per cycle across all of legal.

Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 3:55 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:I've been in-house for 1.5 years, direct from law school.

$160k
<5% Bonus
4% 401k match
Various other benefits (Student loan repayment, stock purchase plan, HSA, etc.)
WOW! That's pretty impressive. Is it a transactions role?
IP. We also hire into our M&A group and our litigation group directly from law school. Usually 3 or 4 new attorneys per cycle across all of legal.
Oh my gosh. This sounds like a dream!! I've been at a firm for ~4 years now and I'm so over it. What are your hours like? Any chance you'd be willing to email me info?

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Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 24, 2018 4:17 pm

Anonymous User wrote: Oh my gosh. This sounds like a dream!! I've been at a firm for ~4 years now and I'm so over it. What are your hours like? Any chance you'd be willing to email me info?
My baseline number of hours per week is in the low 40s. Goes up from there depending on workload. I probably average in the high 40s. 50-55/wk isn't uncommon. I've maybe worked 1 or 2 weeks of 60+ in the past 18 months. By and large, we're not expected to be responsive outside of working hours, but many of us have our email on our phones anyway.

Feel free to shoot me an email at dgoh3ip0elby@opayq.com

Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:58 am

Media/Entertainment Company
180k base
15% bonus
4.5 years V10 big law
Major Market (CA/NY)
No equity

I'm aware that entertainment generally pays less, but does this seem too low?

Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:07 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:11 pm
I haven't seen any L&E-specific in-house practitioners on here. Any L&E in-house counsel willing to provide info (i.e., location, company size, salary, bonus, hours, benefits, etc.)? I am looking into going in-house and would love to have some data points. TIA!
I do L&E and made a move to in-house last year after 6 year as a biglaw L&E associate:

Media company in major market
$185k base salary
20% target bonus
$7.5k RSU grant every year (each grant vests over 3 years)
6% dollar-for-dollar 401k match

So all-in comp is just over $240k for my first year here. Hours are generally pretty good. I end up working into the evening a few nights a week, but nothing terrible, especially once you have been through biglaw. Weekend work is almost never necessary.

Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:45 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:58 am
Media/Entertainment Company
180k base
15% bonus
4.5 years V10 big law
Major Market (CA/NY)
No equity

I'm aware that entertainment generally pays less, but does this seem too low?
If anything that seems high for entertainment IME, so I think you got a good one.

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Anonymous User
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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm

I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.

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canon

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by canon » Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:08 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm
I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.
That is really high. Can I ask what industry? Approx. how many years out? Approximately how much annual revenue?

Drop me a PM if possible, would love to know why I'm so underpaid. :cry:

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Elston Gunn

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Elston Gunn » Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:03 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm
I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.
Do you mean $300k equity vesting over 4 years with a 1 year cliff, or something similar? If so, that’s a nice offer, though not unheard of.

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:46 pm

Elston Gunn wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:03 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm
I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.
Do you mean $300k equity vesting over 4 years with a 1 year cliff, or something similar? If so, that’s a nice offer, though not unheard of.
I haven’t gotten those details yet but that’s my assumption. This is a tech start up, annual revenue about 4 billion.

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Elston Gunn

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Elston Gunn » Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:36 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:46 pm
Elston Gunn wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:03 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm
I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.
Do you mean $300k equity vesting over 4 years with a 1 year cliff, or something similar? If so, that’s a nice offer, though not unheard of.
I haven’t gotten those details yet but that’s my assumption. This is a tech start up, annual revenue about 4 billion.
At a private company I would discount the equity grant a bit (and more so the further you are from going public), but yeah a good offer. Without the complication of the company not being public yet, I believe that is roughly comparable with what you would get from FAANG as a midlevel.

VentureMBA

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by VentureMBA » Tue Feb 16, 2021 10:18 am

Elston Gunn wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:36 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:46 pm
Elston Gunn wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:03 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm
I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.
Do you mean $300k equity vesting over 4 years with a 1 year cliff, or something similar? If so, that’s a nice offer, though not unheard of.
I haven’t gotten those details yet but that’s my assumption. This is a tech start up, annual revenue about 4 billion.
At a private company I would discount the equity grant a bit (and more so the further you are from going public), but yeah a good offer. Without the complication of the company not being public yet, I believe that is roughly comparable with what you would get from FAANG as a midlevel.
On an expected outcome basis, the equity should definitely be discounted.

That being said, its potentially a lot more lucrative than what you'd get at FAANG. I work with VC backed startups and I have seen a dozen (largely incompetent) in house lawyers make enough money at exit that they don't need to work anymore.

Is it likely? Absolutely not. But its possible.

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:52 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:46 pm
Elston Gunn wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:03 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm
I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.
Do you mean $300k equity vesting over 4 years with a 1 year cliff, or something similar? If so, that’s a nice offer, though not unheard of.
I haven’t gotten those details yet but that’s my assumption. This is a tech start up, annual revenue about 4 billion.
Not sure I'd call a tech company with annual revenues of $4 billion a start up, but ok. Also, with revenues like that, without knowing much more, I'd expect there's a good chance the stock would increase in value if and when the company were to go public.

run26.2

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by run26.2 » Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:58 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:52 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:46 pm
Elston Gunn wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:03 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm
I have in house gig offering $200k from a major market $300k equity, standard benefits. From the looks at this thread, this seems to be a good catch, unless the info in this thread is outdated.
Do you mean $300k equity vesting over 4 years with a 1 year cliff, or something similar? If so, that’s a nice offer, though not unheard of.
I haven’t gotten those details yet but that’s my assumption. This is a tech start up, annual revenue about 4 billion.
Not sure I'd call a tech company with annual revenues of $4 billion a start up, but ok. Also, with revenues like that, without knowing much more, I'd expect there's a good chance the stock would increase in value if and when the company were to go public.
Didn't mean to comment anonymously. Also, to clarify, I mean that there's a good chance that the stock would be worth more at that time (in present market conditions, anyway) than what it is valued at now.

Of course, things could change the other way. But I'd tend to agree with Elston Gunn that the equity valuation is probably discounted a bit.

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Feb 16, 2021 2:27 pm

Didn't know this thread was here, posted about this job in the legal salaries datapoints thread when I got the offer.

Fortune 50 company in the financial industry
0 years experience, got the offer after spending my 2L summer there.

$115k base
$10k transition bonus
$8200 max performance bonus

Awesome fringe benefits. Very low health insurance premiums (depending on the exact plan, as little as like $110 a month), 9% 401(k) match (auto 3%, then up to additional 6%), 24 days PTO.

Super happy with the opportunity. Definitely not as much money as going firm side but based on my summer there, it'll only be like a 9-6 job probably. Pretty stoked.

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:13 pm

I've been thinking about posting but I think this thread is really difficult to glean meaningful information from.

Recently, my company's stock has done well. My overall comp is going to be attributable mostly to the equity component (about 2/3, in fact a bit more). But like the market, the price fluctuates wildly. It's possible there is a market crash, with a similar tumble in my company's share price, leading my comp to be much lower. In the end, it doesn't seem like the data point is meaningful, because I could never have predicted this would happen and I wouldn't expect in most other circumstances that the results would be similar.

The lesson I'm learning, though, is that for tech companies, you can roll the dice and negotiate for more equity and lower salary, and can end up being a very good move if your company does well.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Wed Feb 17, 2021 2:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Elston Gunn

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Elston Gunn » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:32 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:13 pm
I've been about posting but I think this thread is really difficult to glean meaningful information from.

Recently, my company's stock has done well. My overall comp is going to be attributable mostly to the equity component (about 2/3). But like the market, the price fluctuates wildly. It's possible there is a market crash, with a similar tumble in my company's share price, leading my comp to be much lower. In the end, it doesn't seem like the data point is meaningful, because I could never have predicted this would happen and I wouldn't expect in most other circumstances that the results would be similar.

The lesson I'm learning, though, is that for tech companies, you can roll the dice and negotiate for more equity and lower salary, and can end up being a very good move if your company does well.
Yeah have had the same experience. I think for a publicly traded company, it’s pretty reasonable to just treat the equity grant as an annual bonus equivalent to its cash value at the time it’s granted/vesting period though. You can be aware that on average it’s likely to be worth more than that by the time you can sell it, *but* there’s a very real possibility it will be worth much less as well, and so it’s more important to be able to live on the base salary and treat the equity as a bonus.

For an earlier stage private company, it’s a lot riskier of course.

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Re: Let's talk in-house salaries

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Apr 27, 2021 1:51 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:11 pm
I haven't seen any L&E-specific in-house practitioners on here. Any L&E in-house counsel willing to provide info (i.e., location, company size, salary, bonus, hours, benefits, etc.)? I am looking into going in-house and would love to have some data points. TIA!
2014 JD
Global employment counsel for Healthcare/Pharma company in tertiary market
$170k base
$30k bonus (target)
4.5% 401k match
No equity (but eligible for discretionary grant w/ 3 year vest in the future)
Schedule is 9-5ish, no weekend work, very sporadic PM work.

After 6 years in big law, I absolutely love it.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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