What's the most someone can hope to make at any New York firm working 50 or less hours a week? Forum

[rustyburger2]

Hi all,

I'm wondering what the most I (or anyone) could reasonably expect to make working at a firm with decent QOL in New York. When I say firm, I don't just mean biglaw--I mean any New York shop, whether it be midlaw or a small 5 to 6 attorney operation.

EDIT--I'm a third year associate at a v50 firm. I'm mostly interested in what someone with my level of experience could hope to make, but all answers welcome.

[The Lsat Airbender]

If you're trying to max out the income and QoL vectors then you pretty much need to go in-house or to the federal government, which should be doable after 3-5 years at a big firm. Both allow for low six-figure pay packages with 40ish-hour weeks.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a first year at a midlaw in NYC and make 90k and work 40ish hours a week. I would imagine at my firm a midlevel makes 140ish.

[Sackboy]

I'd just go in house. That's really the only good answer to good money with a high quality of life.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a first year at a midlaw in NYC and make 90k and work 40ish hours a week. I would imagine at my firm a midlevel makes 140ish.

Would you be able to PM me the name of your firm? If you could, it would be very much appreciated!!

[hyang1021]

I'm a first year at a midlaw in NYC and make 90k and work 40ish hours a week. I would imagine at my firm a midlevel makes 140ish.

Would you be able to PM me the name of your firm? If you could, it would be very much appreciated!!

Sorry I mistakenly posted anonymously lol

[PrinterInk]

Probably a niche specialist attorney at a big firm. I’m sure there are a number of people with pretty good lifestyles in this category who make high $500k-$1.5mm

[Sackboy]

Probably a niche specialist attorney at a big firm. I’m sure there are a number of people with pretty good lifestyles in this category who make high $500k-$1.5mm

The problem with being a niche specialist attorney is that 85% of them work on corporate transactions. For the 15% that don't, most of that regulatory work is likely in DC, not quite OP's New York.

[Anonymous User]

I hear some boutique firms can pay 200,000+ for a good mid-senior associate with less than 1600 annual billables expected.

[nealric]

Probably a niche specialist attorney at a big firm. I’m sure there are a number of people with pretty good lifestyles in this category who make high $500k-$1.5mm

The problem with being a niche specialist attorney is that 85% of them work on corporate transactions. For the 15% that don't, most of that regulatory work is likely in DC, not quite OP's New York.

Working on corporate transactions is not so bad when you are the specialist. If your role is significant to the transaction (like tax structuring or ERISA compliance), you are usually brought in early, and most of your work is done well before crunch time.

My last year of biglaw was around 50 hours/wk, although I was already in lateral search mode at that point and knew I wasn't likely to stick around. Especially in a specialist group, you can likely coast for a few years at that level of work with around 1800hrs if you are generally doing quality and don't get too much non-billable. You may not get market bonus with those hours depending on the firm though. Not likely a sustainable partner track option though.

Best way to get QOL with still decent pay is in-house. There are plenty of in-house shops (including mine) that are generally 40hrs/wk with only the occasional late/weekend work.

[Anonymous User]

Probably a niche specialist attorney at a big firm. I’m sure there are a number of people with pretty good lifestyles in this category who make high $500k-$1.5mm

The problem with being a niche specialist attorney is that 85% of them work on corporate transactions. For the 15% that don't, most of that regulatory work is likely in DC, not quite OP's New York.

Working on corporate transactions is not so bad when you are the specialist. If your role is significant to the transaction (like tax structuring or ERISA compliance), you are usually brought in early, and most of your work is done well before crunch time.

My last year of biglaw was around 50 hours/wk, although I was already in lateral search mode at that point and knew I wasn't likely to stick around. Especially in a specialist group, you can likely coast for a few years at that level of work with around 1800hrs if you are generally doing quality and don't get too much non-billable. You may not get market bonus with those hours depending on the firm though. Not likely a sustainable partner track option though.

Best way to get QOL with still decent pay is in-house. There are plenty of in-house shops (including mine) that are generally 40hrs/wk with only the occasional late/weekend work.

I’m a first year starting out at a v10 sweatshop doing general corporate. I realized I don’t need much more than $150k to be materially content. I want to go in house as soon as possible as I hate the hours and availability. Should I be focusing on switching practice groups (seems really hard to do as my office is mainly corporate)? Or should I try to keep sticking with this corporate thing as it could lead to the chill in house job I want more easily?

Thanks for the response.

[nealric]

Probably a niche specialist attorney at a big firm. I’m sure there are a number of people with pretty good lifestyles in this category who make high $500k-$1.5mm

The problem with being a niche specialist attorney is that 85% of them work on corporate transactions. For the 15% that don't, most of that regulatory work is likely in DC, not quite OP's New York.

Working on corporate transactions is not so bad when you are the specialist. If your role is significant to the transaction (like tax structuring or ERISA compliance), you are usually brought in early, and most of your work is done well before crunch time.

My last year of biglaw was around 50 hours/wk, although I was already in lateral search mode at that point and knew I wasn't likely to stick around. Especially in a specialist group, you can likely coast for a few years at that level of work with around 1800hrs if you are generally doing quality and don't get too much non-billable. You may not get market bonus with those hours depending on the firm though. Not likely a sustainable partner track option though.

Best way to get QOL with still decent pay is in-house. There are plenty of in-house shops (including mine) that are generally 40hrs/wk with only the occasional late/weekend work.

I’m a first year starting out at a v10 sweatshop doing general corporate. I realized I don’t need much more than $150k to be materially content. I want to go in house as soon as possible as I hate the hours and availability. Should I be focusing on switching practice groups (seems really hard to do as my office is mainly corporate)? Or should I try to keep sticking with this corporate thing as it could lead to the chill in house job I want more easily?

Thanks for the response.

If you are genuinely interested in a specialty group, by all means do it. But don't do it just because you think it might have fewer hours. Those specialty groups are going to have a steep learning curve that may actually result in you ramping up initially. General corporate is always a good bet for in-house.

[Wild Card]

According to the bimodal salary distribution, probably $50,000 -- which, in my opinion, is good money. Just not good if you owe $350,000 at 8% interest and have to pay all of it back on your own. But maybe you can IBR it for 25 years, which is what I think most grads do.

[Moneytrees]

I work for a AM150 firm in NYC. Billed 1200 hours as a first year; little under 1500 last year. Salary is 160k as a 3rd year.

I'm assuming my hours will go up next year as I start being more involved, but at this point I'm getting good reviews and have 0 concern about getting pushed out. Pretty sure I could survive a few more years billing less than 1800 hours.

FYI: No bonus unless you hit 1800 which hurts

[nealric]

According to the bimodal salary distribution, probably $50,000 -- which, in my opinion, is good money. Just not good if you owe $350,000 at 8% interest and have to pay all of it back on your own. But maybe you can IBR it for 25 years, which is what I think most grads do.

Keep in mind that the bimodal salary distribution is for starting salaries. It's likely slightly less of a strong bimodal pattern in the experienced market, and the lower mode (to the extent it exists) is going to more than 50k.

[Iowahawk]

According to the bimodal salary distribution, probably $50,000 -- which, in my opinion, is good money. Just not good if you owe $350,000 at 8% interest and have to pay all of it back on your own. But maybe you can IBR it for 25 years, which is what I think most grads do.

The bimodal salary distribution chart was well-intentioned but is often incredibly misleading because it (a) only covers starting salary, (b) covers every market in the country, and (c) doesn’t adjust for taxes and COL. You can’t draw any inferences from it on a question like this that’s specific to NYC. For virtually all purposes it would be far more useful to have a distribution for a specific city or state.