ALMResearchBlog

Salaries: In-House Counsel in Southern California

As mentioned on the Wall St. Journal Law Blog, a survey of 324 members of the Southern California chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, conducted by First American CoreLogic revealed the following information about their compensation:

• Average 2007 Salary + Bonus for In-House Attorneys: $181,810 + $56,13
• Average 2007 Salary + Bonus for General Counsel: $220,164 + $82,640
• Male vs. Female Pay for In-House Jobs: Men were paid a cash salary of 13% more than women in 2007 (and men hold 60% of general counsel jobs.)
• Private Company vs. Public Company Pay: Counsel at private companies were paid slightly better than their public counterparts in 2007.

Midlevel Associates Paycheck Report

In the annual Midlevel Associates Survey, The American Lawyer collects information from respondents about their salary and bonus. Following the workplace satisfaction survey report in their August issue this year, the magazine has followed up with a Paycheck Report. The report includes median salaries and bonuses for third-, fourth-, and fifth-year associates in major markets. As reporter David Brown puts it, “Three years as a big-firm lawyer, and it's a pretty sure bet that the annual paycheck is going to be at least $200,000.”

To read the story, click here. To see the charts click on The Pain Index (how partner profits fare in relation to associate salaries in various offices) and Firm-by-Firm Breakdown, which provides median salary and bonus by class year for all the major markets.

To purchase a searchable spreadsheet of the Midlevel Associate Survey, including scores for each participating office, click here to get a sample and description of this product from the ALM Research Store.

Associate Salary Update

ALM Research is offering the Associate Salary Update free to subscribers, and free to non-subscribers with the purchase of one other product. The Associate Salary Update is an Excel spreadsheet with information tracked by ALM Research about raises in first-year associate salaries and bonuses since November 2006 at almost 300 firms. Data includes the firm name and headquarters city, the highest first-year salary reported, the high and low first-year salaries reported in the most recent NLJ 250 survey (November 2006), the office/s with the highest salary, and the sources for updated information.

This free product will be updated at least once a month until the publication of the 2007 NLJ 250 Survey in The National Law Journal in November of this year. Please use the same link to get next month's update.

To receive this free product, please email almresearch@alm.com and reference the promotional code: ASU. Non-subscribers will need to verify that they have recently purchased a product.

Salaries: Supreme Court Bonus Babies

A New York Times article about Supreme Court clerks, and the bonuses they receive from the large, elite firms they join post-clerkship (Supreme Court Bonus Babies), has generated a lot of buzz on the web. The associate gossip e-rag, Abovethelaw.com is responsible for much of it, as the writer of the article, David Lat, is an editor there. He recently pleaded with readers to email the article to their 50 closest friends because he was "desperately trying to crack the NYT's "Most Emailed Articles" list. As of this posting, his article had made it to #17.

The clerkship bonuses are indeed jaw-dropping. As described by the NYT, signing bonuses are expected to reach $250,000 this year - paid on top of starting salaries approaching $200,000 - for the select few "young legal geniuses who spend a year assisting the justices in selecting cases for review, preparing for oral argument and drafting opinions. Thus some former clerks, in their first year practicing law, will earn twice as much as their former judicial bosses (the chief justice earns $212,000 a year; his colleagues earn $203,000 each)." Normal clerkships - that is, within an appellate court - earn the average AmLaw 100 firm associate about $50,000.

But Lat argues that the economics of this situation are just. "Even if the astronomical Supreme Court clerkship bonuses may be dubious investments for law firms," he writes, "they are good news for our legal system. By promising clerks a financial windfall on the back end of their clerkships, firms encourage bright young lawyers - many of whom carry loads of educational debt - to render service to the court and country."