What do biglaw junior equity partners actually make? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m talking about take-home gross pay, which obviously excludes associate/staff comp, pensions, office space, and so on. Assume it’s a well-regarded lockstep or lockstep-ish firm with a strong institutional client base and PPP in the $3.2-$3.7mm range...so basically DPW/Cleary/STB/GDC/Skadden.

[jkpolk]

I’m talking about take-home gross pay, which obviously excludes associate/staff comp, pensions, office space, and so on. Assume it’s a well-regarded lockstep or lockstep-ish firm with a strong institutional client base and PPP in the $3.2-$3.7mm range...so basically DPW/Cleary/STB/GDC/Skadden.

less than a million bucks. and equity buy in sucks.

[FascinatedWanderer]

Most of the lockstep firms have a pretty tight spread of around 4:1 on highest paid to lowest paid partners. With a PPP of $3M, that means junior partners make roughly $1.2M and senior partners around $4.8M.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

Most of the lockstep firms have a pretty tight spread of around 4:1 on highest paid to lowest paid partners. With a PPP of $3M, that means junior partners make roughly $1.2M and senior partners around $4.8M.

This appears to assume a 1:1 ratio between the two. Why?

[FascinatedWanderer]

Most of the lockstep firms have a pretty tight spread of around 4:1 on highest paid to lowest paid partners. With a PPP of $3M, that means junior partners make roughly $1.2M and senior partners around $4.8M.

This appears to assume a 1:1 ratio between the two. Why?

Because for a rough approximation that's the easiest way to do it?

[Roy McAvoy]

I’m talking about take-home gross pay, which obviously excludes associate/staff comp, pensions, office space, and so on. Assume it’s a well-regarded lockstep or lockstep-ish firm with a strong institutional client base and PPP in the $3.2-$3.7mm range...so basically DPW/Cleary/STB/GDC/Skadden.

less than a million bucks. and equity buy in sucks.

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

[Nagster5]

I’m talking about take-home gross pay, which obviously excludes associate/staff comp, pensions, office space, and so on. Assume it’s a well-regarded lockstep or lockstep-ish firm with a strong institutional client base and PPP in the $3.2-$3.7mm range...so basically DPW/Cleary/STB/GDC/Skadden.

less than a million bucks. and equity buy in sucks.

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

~$1M for big firms

[jkpolk]

I’m talking about take-home gross pay, which obviously excludes associate/staff comp, pensions, office space, and so on. Assume it’s a well-regarded lockstep or lockstep-ish firm with a strong institutional client base and PPP in the $3.2-$3.7mm range...so basically DPW/Cleary/STB/GDC/Skadden.

less than a million bucks. and equity buy in sucks.

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

~$1M for big firms

Even if it's not that bad all places(read 500K instead of 1M), it's bad enough that all in comp could be better as a counsel with a negotiated cut of billables from generated work for a few years after making it.

[Anonymous User]

I’m talking about take-home gross pay, which obviously excludes associate/staff comp, pensions, office space, and so on. Assume it’s a well-regarded lockstep or lockstep-ish firm with a strong institutional client base and PPP in the $3.2-$3.7mm range...so basically DPW/Cleary/STB/GDC/Skadden.

less than a million bucks. and equity buy in sucks.

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

~$1M for big firms

Even if it's not that bad all places(read 500K instead of 1M), it's bad enough that all in comp could be better as a counsel with a negotiated cut of billables from generated work for a few years after making it.

Yes, family friend of mine is a junior partner and made the same or less her first year because of the buy in (that said, this firm -- and im sure others -- have bank clients finance the buy-in so its not 500k+ upfront).

[Anonymous User]

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

~$1M for big firms

Source? Seems high.

[Anonymous User]

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

~$1M for big firms

Source? Seems high.

The $1 million is my firm's equity buy in. V50.

[Anonymous User]

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

~$1M for big firms

Source? Seems high.

The $1 million is my firm's equity buy in. V50.

yeah but the firms listed are more flush/financially stable than a v50 and less in need of a cash infusion from each new partner, so i’d wager the buy-in is lower.

[JenDarby]

How much are we talking re: "equity buy in sucks" ?

~$1M for big firms

Source? Seems high.

The $1 million is my firm's equity buy in. V50.

yeah but the firms listed are more flush/financially stable than a v50 and less in need of a cash infusion from each new partner, so i’d wager the buy-in is lower.

why is all of this anon?

that's not really how equity buy ins work

[Anonymous User]

why is all of this anon?

that's not really how equity buy ins work

long shot, but im partner track at one of the above listed firms and would prefer not to be outed discussing this sort of thing.

isnt that exactly how they work? gives the newbies some skin in the game while giving the partnership some cash.

[Anonymous User]

IME from partner friends at firms with excellent PPP, SO that was an equity partner in a consulting firm, and personal experience buying equity in an investment firm, the buy in amounts have had nothing to do with any need for cash infusion but have been set by a third party valuation of the equity you're buying into. My firm discounts these valuations to make it a better deal, so that's possible, but I've seen scenarios where this is not the case in larger more rigid firms that were also flush with cash.