How much would a lawyer 16yrs pqe be paid hourly in small London Firm ?

[craftykits]

I have been in discussion with a solicitor who has their own firm to do some ad hoc work for them when their workload demands it. It will entail covering her when she's on holiday or needs a day off, going in when her workload gets a bit much together with doing some one off transactions (on my own) and from home.

I've was part time up until September last year when I was made redundant and was not being paid full market rate then anyway as the company were struggling at that time.

I don't want to put her off employing me (she's keen thank goodness) but also don't want to sell myself short. I was thinking that I would need to work out a salary mid way between a small London firm and larger firm out of London (where I was) for my level as one level down from a Partner and then divide up to get an hourly rate from there ?

I also wondered whether to ask for a cut in the fee if I was doing a transaction solely ?

Ideas please !!...and many thanks in advance !

[flowery]

If its ad hoc you will presumably be self employed, and therefore not benefiting from holiday pay, sick pay, pension etc etc etc.... Freelance rates are higher than 'employed' rates for this reason. Have you asked her how much she is thinking?

[Platinumstart]

I think you need to ask her what range she has in mind - or at least see if you can get an idea of what she charges per hour and then ask for a % of that.

[MrsMargoLeadbetter]

I'd clarify (if you don't already know) if she means employed or self-employed. If the later you do as flowery says need to think about tax etc.

This might not be relevant or it might be something you are already aware of. But there have been discussions on the freelance thread here on MN about the type of insurance cover that self employed legal types need and it sounded expensive. Obviously if you work for her this isn't an issue.

I'd ask her what she was expecting to pay. Or try to find out their fee/charge structure.

Good luck.

[Fridayschild]

Find out the chargeout rate, for starters.

If you were FT you would need to be billing between 3 and 4 times your salary - this is a pretty classic rule of thumb no matter what size the firm is. Flip it round, and you should get about one third your chargeout rate per hour you work.

This is your starter. You can then start to think about a premium for flexibility for her versus the security of a flow of work for you.

If you bring work in you could ask for a share of the fee income - commission. However if you're working unsupervised at 16PQE I don't really think you can charge extra for that.

Employment agencies like Taylor Root have a salary survey each year if you can't find out the chargeout rate.

[dontyouknow]

Also - don't forget about your practising certificate. Did you renew it after you were made redundant? If not you would also need to check if the firm are doing it or if you would need to. If just ad hoc work I imagine the firm would expect you to sort it out (and pay for it).