Top Law Schools

I am a sr associate in a niche, high-demand practice in a major market. I have offers from two firms, both with similar hours requirements & benefits. One is big law (but below Cravath scale), the other is a boutique firm. Both offers are approximately the same when factoring in bonuses and the overall compensation package. Because both offers came in within the same week, I have informed each firm that I have received multiple offers and will be getting back to them next week.

I am considering countering both offers requesting 15-20% above the salary offered. I expect one or both will counter with a signing bonus, but I am more interested in getting my overall base comp to be higher.

Any advice on this? I assume I will not get the full salary I request in a counter, but I also don’t want to leave money on the table. Neither firm has much published information on associate salaries, but based on my research it appears the big law firm has paid approximately 15% more than the salary being offered to me for a similar practice group in a similarly sized city (for the same level of experience). I cannot find any specific information on the boutique firm’s salaries.

Is countering with a request for a base salary at 15-20% above the offer appropriate?

If either of these firms is on a lockstep scale, I would recommend you go directly to negotiating a higher signing bonus so that they don't simply come back with a "Sorry, we are a lockstep firm." Totally agree it's nicer to get overall comp. higher but your one-time comp. may be the easier one to negotiate (and easier for firm to get sign off on internally). You could prob use the fact that it's one-time payment as basis to ask for even higher.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:02 pm

If either of these firms is on a lockstep scale, I would recommend you go directly to negotiating a higher signing bonus so that they don't simply come back with a "Sorry, we are a lockstep firm." Totally agree it's nicer to get overall comp. higher but your one-time comp. may be the easier one to negotiate (and easier for firm to get sign off on internally). You could prob use the fact that it's one-time payment as basis to ask for even higher.

Agree with this. Ask for a big signing bonus and direct negotiation towards vesting/clawback which will make it resemble salary anyway. You'll probably come out ahead until and unless you stay at the new job 4+ years.