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Can people help me understand what the Bay Area Associate salary range is these days for a Junior Associate? I'm a 2nd year and looking to find a better paying job. I know Big law makes major dough, but there's almost no data on these other firms.

I think it largely depends on the practice area. The good news is that many medium to small size firms in the Bay Area will negotiate salary with you. I am in-house but almost switched jobs last year (when I was a second year) to a small/medium size real estate firm in San Francisco. We went through salary negotiations and ended up settling at $140K base. I think I recall them initially offering $120K. Bonus would be extra, but they would not tell me what a typical bonus at the firm looked like. I went through a recruiter. I would recommend getting in touch with a couple recruiters in the Bay Area to find out what salary range you should expect.

dotbun wrote:I think it largely depends on the practice area. The good news is that many medium to small size firms in the Bay Area will negotiate salary with you. I am in-house but almost switched jobs last year (when I was a second year) to a small/medium size real estate firm in San Francisco. We went through salary negotiations and ended up settling at $140K base. I think I recall them initially offering $120K. Bonus would be extra, but they would not tell me what a typical bonus at the firm looked like. I went through a recruiter. I would recommend getting in touch with a couple recruiters in the Bay Area to find out what salary range you should expect.

Thank you! If you're willing, would you mind recommending any particular recruiters in the Bay Area without compromising your identity? I've heard some horror stories about working with bad recruiters.

Solutus and Major Lindsey and Africa are the big Bay Area local firms that I’ve heard good things about

apparentlymargarita wrote:Solutus and Major Lindsey and Africa are the big Bay Area local firms that I’ve heard good things about

Thank you! Any thoughts on Robert Half?

I don’t know much about Robert Half except that it’s national and large. My vague association with it is that it’s probably in a lower tier than the two firms I mentioned because they’re really Bay Area focused and have the local connections and some exclusive relationships with boutiques and larger companies looking for in house lawyers