Top Law Schools

I'm a T14 3L, set to return to a NYC firm at the tippy-top of the Vault rankings in their Corporate practice.

Let's say I go in-house around year 4-5 to one of the NYC-centric, well-paying landing spots (bulge bracket investment bank/PE shop/hedge fund). If I'm focused on pursuing career moves that maximize my compensation once in-house, while still staying in a legal/quasi-legal/reasonably-attainable-by-a-lawyer roles (i.e., without breaking my back to try to transition to business/finance/investment sides), what does my pay look like around mid-career/in-house years 10-15/when I'm in my 40s? I know that in-house salaries are largely a black box, but any prognosis would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Check out the Lawyer Whisperer. She skews Bay Area, but it's also a major market. She's got blog posts on this and she knows her stuff.

Your salary will largely depend on what type of law you end up practicing and in what setting. In several finance roles, you might have equity or be a principal in the shop you join, and the value of that is hard to quantify from the outside. If you join a bank, you will likely get a decent salary and lots of RSUs. Salaries tend to be between 200K and 300k for most early-mid- career lawyers in major markets, and then you get more back-end comp. Mid-career onward could be 200-400K, and if you reach GC stage, you could make between 500-700K + back end pay. These are not salaries if you're a "rank and file" commercial counsel but moreso if you do high-touch, very financy corporate work or are higher up at a late stage private or public company. These are not early stage startup salaries or smaller, more "regular" non-finance GC jobs. These are salaries in high-margin businesses! Of course, you may decide you want to take a flier at a smaller place and take more risk. It's just really hard to know so far out.