How to find profits per partner by location? Forum

[californialove3]

Berkeley 1L here who was lucky enough to get HH/HH/HH last semester. I hope to have the same grades in the spring, and have been thinking about which firms I want to bid on come EIW. I am interested in the LA market and already have a 1L SA lined up at a V50 firm. I want to do litigation, and a consideration of mine is how much a profit a firm is bringing in. My goal is to make partner and I want to cash out with big bonuses as an associate.

Is there any way I can find out which firms in LA have the highest profits per partner? I see some firms on the list of largest United States-based law firms by profits per partner that have offices in LA, but I'm not sure if that means anything (e.g. Kirkland Chi bringing in more $ than LA). Should I be looking at firms that are based in LA like Quinn and GDC?

I'm sorry if this seems short-sighted, but I'm still very much interested in seeing the data.

[2013]

Partner profits at a lot of offices vary. If you have a rainmaker in LA, they will make a lot. If you have a lot of service partners, they will make significantly less. It isn’t necessarily by region/office, per se. Not that many firms are lockstep for partner comp.

Also, if you want big bonuses, that information is generally available via Above the Law. A high PPP doesn’t always mean big associate bonuses.

[64Fl]

If you want big associate $$$, you're going to want to probably clerk and go to some lit shop like Susman that pays out crazy bonuses. Very few of the other vault firms with LA offices pay much above market, if they are even paying above market in the first place. As the other user pointed out, PPP will be a nearly useless statistic for you. A lot of the lit boutiques that do pay great bonuses don't even report PPP.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

This is very...off base. I won’t repeat what others said, but PPP shouldn’t really matter by office (and that data isn’t available anyway) except for the situation where an office is on the verge of failing and being closed.

As for big associate bonuses, it’s pretty well known and public which firms pay above market. I can’t think of a firm that wouldn’t pay its LA office a higher bonus if, say, the NY office was killing it and they decided to give above market bonuses.

Not really sure what the goal is for the question. If you want above market comp, don’t go to Biglaw.

[FND]

you'll never find a breakdown of PPP per office. But you'll want to look at firms that are either headquartered in L.A. or have a major presence there. An outpost with 5-10 attorneys generally doesn't have anywhere near the same level of compensation.

But that's only the first part of the story. Even at a place like QE, Gibson Dunn, or OMM, where the L.A. office generates significant profits, there's a lot of variation within the office. Practice group makes a big difference, with L&E typically making about half what Corporate earns. And, as mentioned earlier, service partners make less than rainmakers.

I'm going to skip the conversation about the odds of making partner. If you want to make big bucks, you need to get very lucky to work with a rainmaker partner who's happy to hand off the business to you, AND you need to figure out how to expand on that and generate a lot more business. That matters more than anything else. Where long-term income is concerned, I'd take a partner who'll help you generate business over a more profitable practice group and over a more profitable firm any day of the week.

[californialove3]

you'll never find a breakdown of PPP per office. But you'll want to look at firms that are either headquartered in L.A. or have a major presence there. An outpost with 5-10 attorneys generally doesn't have anywhere near the same level of compensation.

But that's only the first part of the story. Even at a place like QE, Gibson Dunn, or OMM, where the L.A. office generates significant profits, there's a lot of variation within the office. Practice group makes a big difference, with L&E typically making about half what Corporate earns. And, as mentioned earlier, service partners make less than rainmakers.

I'm going to skip the conversation about the odds of making partner. If you want to make big bucks, you need to get very lucky to work with a rainmaker partner who's happy to hand off the business to you, AND you need to figure out how to expand on that and generate a lot more business. That matters more than anything else. Where long-term income is concerned, I'd take a partner who'll help you generate business over a more profitable practice group and over a more profitable firm any day of the week.

Thanks for the insight all. Is there a lot of corporate work (M&A and cap markets) in LA compared to SF/NYC? I'm not set on litigation, I have not had the chance to work on a deal.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

There’s not a ton of pubco work in LA compared to a lot of places. A lot of the work is private equity driven (see: Proskauer losing their Woronoff/corporate group that basically did Ares work to K&E) or lower dollar work related to entertainment. There’s certainly some pubco work but I think even San Diego has more. No shortage of M&A however.

[FND]

Thanks for the insight all. Is there a lot of corporate work (M&A and cap markets) in LA compared to SF/NYC? I'm not set on litigation, I have not had the chance to work on a deal.

Do some homework.

Pick a firm, go to its website, and look at their attorneys. Sort by location, then by practice group. If there are 100 attorneys in L.A. and 95% do litigation, maybe that firm shouldn't be quite so high on your list. If the firm has 20 attorneys in L.A. and all of them do M&A, maybe that firm should be a bit higher up than the size of the office indicates.

During my 1L summer, I made a spreadsheet of all the firms coming for interviews, and listed not just pay, but number of attorneys, breakdowns by practice group, number of SAs, number of interview slots, and a whole lot more. So not only did I know which firms would be my favorites, but also which ones I'd be most likely to score an interview, and the probability of getting hired.
Smart bidding meant that I had twice as many interviews as a girl in my section whose GPA was more than half a point higher than mine. Of all the people I checked with, the only person who had as many interviews had a 4.15 GPA.

[californialove3]

Thanks for the insight all. Is there a lot of corporate work (M&A and cap markets) in LA compared to SF/NYC? I'm not set on litigation, I have not had the chance to work on a deal.

Do some homework.

Pick a firm, go to its website, and look at their attorneys. Sort by location, then by practice group. If there are 100 attorneys in L.A. and 95% do litigation, maybe that firm shouldn't be quite so high on your list. If the firm has 20 attorneys in L.A. and all of them do M&A, maybe that firm should be a bit higher up than the size of the office indicates.

During my 1L summer, I made a spreadsheet of all the firms coming for interviews, and listed not just pay, but number of attorneys, breakdowns by practice group, number of SAs, number of interview slots, and a whole lot more. So not only did I know which firms would be my favorites, but also which ones I'd be most likely to score an interview, and the probability of getting hired.
Smart bidding meant that I had twice as many interviews as a girl in my section whose GPA was more than half a point higher than mine. Of all the people I checked with, the only person who had as many interviews had a 4.15 GPA.

Thanks so much! I definitely will. I appreciate your suggestion--sounds like a smart strategy.