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Is it normal for corporate associates to bill at significantly higher rates than other associates?

Just saw some rates info and saw that corporate associates bill at 10% above our tax/healthcare/other specialty groups and 15% above litigation (for the same class year (mid level)). Is this normal?

Does this difference continue up to partnership? Not sure how this works, but thought it was strange to bill at different rates for associates.

Anon because some people know where I work and not sure I was supposed to see this info.

Anonymous User wrote:Is it normal for corporate associates to bill at significantly higher rates than other associates?

Just saw some rates info and saw that corporate associates bill at 10% above our tax/healthcare/other specialty groups and 15% above litigation (for the same class year (mid level)). Is this normal?

Does this difference continue up to partnership? Not sure how this works, but thought it was strange to bill at different rates for associates.

Anon because some people know where I work and not sure I was supposed to see this info.

Completely normal. Especially at big firms, the amount involved in M&A dwarfs most litigation controversy numbers, so corporate can charge higher rates.

Re partnership, depends on the firm I suppose, but not really. Still need litigation to be successful to make the clients happy. As to equity shares later on, that may be a different story.

This is very common. Labor and employment-related work typically bills at even lower rates. Many large law firms have moved away from doing labor and employment (unless it is defending class actions) because the billing rates are so much lower in this practice area. There are also fewer corporate attorneys than there are litigators, for example. Most attorneys that go to law school end up becoming litigators--few become corporate attorneys. Therefore, because there is a lower supply there is less competition. For major corporate deals, there are also a small list of firms that are considered the "go to firms"--compared to firms that do litigation--and large companies prefer to use brand names in important transactions to ensure nothing goes wrong.