lawyer salary

[tg95]

hi, any lawyers on here with some advice?

currently half way through my TC in a small regional firm (7 offices, 10 partners) in the NE

what sort of salary can i expect on qualification, after 5 years, 10 years etc?

currently on 17,500k and looking to specialise in company commercial law and employment

[tg95]

hi Katrina,

Yes i am. I wasn't aware however that you could search for partnerships on CH.

As stated, i have researched but they tend to be for bigger regional firms. Additionally i presume that an NQ salary in company/commercial would differ from that of one in conveyancing - hence why i mentioned it to see if there was anybody on here in the same as area as myself

[jamdhanihash]

You'll attract the salary you can. It's quite random and I don't know how anyone here can be more specific except legal recruiters. What do your friends and colleagues tell you?

Consider the effect of Brexit and a recession on your career. Junior lawyers in commercial fields are often first to be offloaded should work slow down.

[Katrinawaves]

Are you really a trainee solicitor working in corporate law but don’t know how to access publicly available corporate records or how to research local salaries?

Or are you trying to work out the earning potential of someone else in your life for some reason?

[tg95]

im afraid i have no idea!

[tg95]

hi hugo,

how do i go about looking at the accounts?

yes i can imagine in the bigger cities we'd be a small firm but we have good coverage in our region

[DragonMamma]

@tg95 how long is a piece of string?! If varies so wildly depending on so many different factors.

I’m surprised you can’t find any info online. I’m forever getting salary surveys which split salaries down to regions. Maybe contact a national legal recruiter who may be able to send you a copy?

[Katrinawaves]

I’ve only ever worked in London so can’t help with that I’m afraid. But equity partners take a share of profits not a salary so that will fluctuate depending on what kind of year the practice has had. The firm I qualified into was in trouble (and folded the year after I left) and I earned more in that year than the equity partners did - many were left with debts for several years afterwards!

You are entitled to see the accounts before accepting a partnership so do your due diligence when you get to that stage.

[tg95]

thanks katrina.

one last question! what sort of salary can you expect for a salaried and equity partner? i have tied to research but most are for London firms and big regionals...

[Katrinawaves]

But bear in mind that what you bill is not necessarily the same as the billable time you record as depending on the matter, your supervising partner may write time off. You therefore want to try to position yourself to work on matters where both the client and the matter can bear the amount of time you legitimately record to it.

[Katrinawaves]

It’s the formula they use @tg95 to fix your target against your salary.

In other words if all NQs start on £30k and the firm has a metric of 3 at NQ level you’ll be expected to bill £90k in your first year. If you ended up billing £120k then you would probably get an ex gratia bonus at the end of the year or you would start your PQE1 on a slightly higher base salary than colleagues who billed £90k or less.

[tg95]

hi dragon,

what do you mean about salary metric?

[DragonMamma]

It’s the age old problem of the more you earn, the more that is expected of you in terms of financial targets. Most commercial firms have a minimum salary metric they require of you to achieve - it’s usually between 3 and 3.5 at a junior level and then 4 for senior lawyers

[DragonMamma]

You wouldn’t be considered senior in our firm until around c7yrs PQE. We have an extra level in our structure though.

Those targets are very low. Our NQs have a target of around £12k pcm (depending on practice area it can vary slightly). £15/16k a month would be ‘impressive’ as opposed to just doing well and being over target.

[tg95]

thanks dragon i appreciate it. for our firm it tends to be trainee-lawyer-snr lawyer-salaried partner-equity partner

would you be considered a senior lawyer after say 5 years?

also re. performance - say i had a target of 4k p/m (as an example), what would be considered very impressive? 5k? 6?

[DragonMamma]

Oh and ours increases incrementally each year, anywhere up to 4%, depending on your performance scores that year.

There’s more significant salary jumps as you apply for advancement though, which tends to be every 3-5years

[DragonMamma]

Our trainees are in £8k more than you are so if you apply the same maths to the NQ rate then I’d say around £27k would be about right?

I know smaller firms in our region who pay about the same trainee rate as you’re on pay around £25-28k upon qualification.

[tg95]

hi dragon,

that's reassuring as that's an excellent salary here. We aren't a small firm in our region (7 offices, around 12-15 partners) but of course in the UK we are. i wouldn't classify us as 'high street'.

what would you guesstimate, based on your firm and knowledge, my NQ salary being bearing in mind by 17.5k as a trainee? how often does it increase and by how much usually?

[DragonMamma]

Our NQs start on £35k. We are a medium size regional firm and it’s fairly standard locally with similar sized firms.

Smaller high street type outfits tend to pay much less.

I’d say your aspirations for 8-10yrs PQE are achievable.

[tg95]

Laura - you seem very knowledgeable on these things... is the NE typically the lowest paid region for lawyers in the UK?

[tg95]

that's interesting to note, i suppose it's all relative when you take into account costs of living etc

[LauraMipsum]

Yes, that sounds like a reasonable conservative estimate, although who on earth knows what anything will look like in 8-10 years....