Cohen Milstein salary? Forum
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Cohen Milstein salary?
Does anyone know this or any similar p side firm salaries? Especially interested in raises.
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Anonymous User
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Re: Cohen Milstein salary?
Friend got an offer with antitrust department of Cohen Milstein. Don't know exact numbers, but salary was lower than biglaw and expected salary + bonus was significantly higher than typical biglaw.
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Re: Cohen Milstein salary?
not cohen milstein specific, but the below should be generally true of all peer firms.
salary will always be lower than biglaw, about 60%-80% of biglaw for the most junior roles. as you get more senior, the gap widens (so to answer your question about raises--they exist but are small compared to biglaw). that is true even into the counsel and partnership ranks. guaranteed salaries at those levels are laughably lower than biglaw salaries--about half, or third, or even a quarter, depending on which biglaw firm you're talking about, and what counsel/partnership structure is involved.
bonuses, on the other hand... depend highly on the year. zero bonuses in trying times. bonuses that well exceed 100% of salary in good times, and possibly even 200% or 300% if you're senior and you originated the case. if you are equity partner, obviously even more. (but imagine it's not a profitable year and you are equity--prepare to dig into your savings or put up your house as collateral to make payroll.) the nice thing is, even as a low-level associate, the quality of your work will determine, at least in small part (and possibly in large part), how good of a year it will be.
there will also be significant non-comp-related benefits. the perverse incentive to do meaningless work created by the billable hour essentially does not exist. nor does the phenomenon of client-driven BS work. instead, all work is basically done to advance the case, and the cause. you will have a lot more responsibility and autonomy, particularly as junior, than you would in biglaw. and you will generally feel much better about the work than any work you do in biglaw (save pro bono work, and unless you really like making rich people richer or protecting rich people from legal trouble, in which case go to biglaw).
so, even if it's a bad year, and there are no bonuses, you should make at least ~150k (more if you are counsel/partner, but probably not more than 1.5x or 2x more), likely working fewer hours than you would have in biglaw, and certainly fewer meaningless hours. if that's not enough money for you, you probably shouldn't be at firms like these anyway.
salary will always be lower than biglaw, about 60%-80% of biglaw for the most junior roles. as you get more senior, the gap widens (so to answer your question about raises--they exist but are small compared to biglaw). that is true even into the counsel and partnership ranks. guaranteed salaries at those levels are laughably lower than biglaw salaries--about half, or third, or even a quarter, depending on which biglaw firm you're talking about, and what counsel/partnership structure is involved.
bonuses, on the other hand... depend highly on the year. zero bonuses in trying times. bonuses that well exceed 100% of salary in good times, and possibly even 200% or 300% if you're senior and you originated the case. if you are equity partner, obviously even more. (but imagine it's not a profitable year and you are equity--prepare to dig into your savings or put up your house as collateral to make payroll.) the nice thing is, even as a low-level associate, the quality of your work will determine, at least in small part (and possibly in large part), how good of a year it will be.
there will also be significant non-comp-related benefits. the perverse incentive to do meaningless work created by the billable hour essentially does not exist. nor does the phenomenon of client-driven BS work. instead, all work is basically done to advance the case, and the cause. you will have a lot more responsibility and autonomy, particularly as junior, than you would in biglaw. and you will generally feel much better about the work than any work you do in biglaw (save pro bono work, and unless you really like making rich people richer or protecting rich people from legal trouble, in which case go to biglaw).
so, even if it's a bad year, and there are no bonuses, you should make at least ~150k (more if you are counsel/partner, but probably not more than 1.5x or 2x more), likely working fewer hours than you would have in biglaw, and certainly fewer meaningless hours. if that's not enough money for you, you probably shouldn't be at firms like these anyway.
