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Hey all, is there a way to estimate a firm's profits per partner by using it's first-year salary for reference? I'm going to a firm with around 100 attorneys that pays $155-170k starting in a major market. Their PPP isn't published. Any idea, ballpark, what it might be? 500k-750k?

MrLions wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:01 am

Hey all, is there a way to estimate a firm's profits per partner by using it's first-year salary for reference? I'm going to a firm with around 100 attorneys that pays $155-170k starting in a major market. Their PPP isn't published. Any idea, ballpark, what it might be? 500k-750k?

No. Just look at the Amlaw 100--pretty much all firms pay the same first-year salary, but PPP varies immensely. PPP=revenue minus expenses divided by # of equity partners.

Sure, but there's got to be a minimum PPP range for a firm based on their starting salary. Partners wouldn't pay new attorneys 155k-170k if their PPP wasn't at least 200k+.

You didn’t ask for a minimum, you asked for an estimate. In any case, a minimum isn’t really very helpful given the wide range of possibilities.

MrLions wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:12 am

Sure, but there's got to be a minimum PPP range for a firm based on their starting salary. Partners wouldn't pay new attorneys 155k-170k if their PPP wasn't at least 200k+.

I think it's very fair to assume that PPP is above $200k if that's the starting salary. Just as an example, Cole Shotz is an Amlaw 200 firm that starts associates at $135, and their PPP is about $1M. But firms in the Amlaw 100 that start at $190 have PPP below $1M. Just goes to show you that it's pretty hard to learn anything about PPP from starting salary.

Look up the houses a few partners own in zillow