Mid-law compensation questions Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm going to keep this vague so I don't get outed. I have an offer from a mid-sized law firm in a large city. It says that compensation starts at $165k, and there are performance reviews once a year, on Jan 1st. Compensation is "subject to adjustment" based on annual performance reviews.

I want to ask HR "what is the typical annual compensation adjustment, assuming that an associate has average or above average performance?" However, I don't know if this question is appropriate, or if it may come off as too pushy

The information is not available on vault or ball. Thanks for taking the time to read and reply!

[Jchance]

I'd say its a fair question to ask, not sure about appropriateness. Though I highly suspect that HR won't tell you that information, citing confidentiality or perhaps a more lawyerly response like "it depends, on a case-by-case basis."

[Anonymous User]

I'd say its a fair question to ask, not sure about appropriateness. Though I highly suspect that HR won't tell you that information, citing confidentiality or perhaps a more lawyerly response like "it depends, on a case-by-case basis."

Work at a firm similar to the one in question, and summered at another. My comp is close ish to $165

this is correct, almost 0 chance they say anything useful

Typical raise if you are "on track" is $5k, especially earlier on. This was the case at both of my similar such firms, and from everything I've heard, $5k/year is pretty much industry standard practice. I think you would need to do something extraordinary to get more than that, and similarly be very bad to get less

[Jchance]

Typical raise if you are "on track" is $5k, especially earlier on. This was the case at both of my similar such firms, and from everything I've heard, $5k/year is pretty much industry standard practice. I think you would need to do something extraordinary to get more than that, and similarly be very bad to get less

I agree that raise is normally $5k/year, sometime 10k/year.

But I question whether your salary would ever decrease due to being "very bad." That is because you would get the boot instead. It's a buyer's market for law firms and there seem to be plenty of lateral movement.

[Anonymous User]

Typical raise if you are "on track" is $5k, especially earlier on. This was the case at both of my similar such firms, and from everything I've heard, $5k/year is pretty much industry standard practice. I think you would need to do something extraordinary to get more than that, and similarly be very bad to get less

I agree that raise is normally $5k/year, sometime 10k/year.

But I question whether your salary would ever decrease due to being "very bad." That is because you would get the boot instead. It's a buyer's market for law firms and there seem to be plenty of lateral movement.

By "less," I didn't mean decrease, I meant more like you'd get maybe a $0-$2k raise or something, e.g., if either your billables were significantly below target, or your collections were putting you close to the red

TBH I feel like you have to do something extraordinarily bad to get fired around here. Like blow multiple filing deadlines or something. My group has lost 0 attorneys voluntarily or otherwise for a few years running.

It certainly doesn't have the feel of a "vault" firm (i'd call where I work "regional Biglaw") or whatever where it's more like "Hit 2k hours or GTFO" (which I also worked at).

[Bluem_11]

Not sure this is a question HR will answer. Seems more a question you'll get something straight from being buddy buddy with a partner.