Paralegal Salaries - Just What Are They?

Law jobs and paralegal jobs always rotate around - surprise! surprise! - salaries among other menial considerations like work/life balance, professional support, firm culture etc etc.

The AbovetheLaw blog asked about paralegal salaries and received these responses:


(1) intellectual property manager ("essentially a high-level paralegal position"), in-house position, Boston's South Shore, class of 2001: $80,000 (plus bonus and stock options; "straight 9 to 5 workday"; also attending law school in the evening);

(2) paralegal / case assistant, complex litigation defense, in the San Francisco office of a large law firm, class of 2004: $38,000 (plus bonus; last year's bonus was ~$1,000; roughly 45 hours/week, but if in trial, 50-60 hours/week);

(3) paralegal, real estate and tax, in the Washington, D.C. office of a large law firm, class of 2005: $41,000 (plus bonus of ~$1,500, and overtime pay of ~$15,000; 45-50 hours/week);and

(4) paralegal, litigation, at a large New York law firm, class of 2004: $38,000 ("plus lots of and lots of overtime; I haven't completed a year, but expect to make about $60K-$65K").

Additional comments from one respondent:

"That won't be at the high-end among our paralegals -- I know of at least a couple people here who have made over $90K in a year as a paralegal. Workload varies depending on case demand, but I personally vacillate between 50 - 60 hour weeks and 100+ hour weeks, when I feel like I can stand to bank some extra cash or am caught up in the middle of a big production. The highest earning paralegals are basically working 17 hour days every day and making double time the whole time."

Slaughter and May To Review Remuneration Level

Increased pay for lawyers - that's PSLs. Slaughter and May's London office is looking to grow the number of what are euphemistically (but somewhat clinically) "PSLs" : that's professional support lawyers, didn't you know?

S&M partner Charles Randell said the firm is going in a different direction from other firms because they want to actively recruit PSLs in areas like corporate and finance and - here's the good part - they want to increase pay in line with the rises given to fee earning staff.


Slaughter and May has already introduced a 15% bonus for fee earners, whereas PSLs got just 3 per cent. Randell is heading the new review.

Attorneys Taking Jobs With Their Clients - It's A Growing Problem

Losing lawyers to clients may have been a feather in the cap of law firms previously, but with increased deal flow and a tight lawyer market, law firms are much less inclined to view lateral moves with great relish. An article in The National Law Journal reports on recruiting partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (Kara Baysinger)and the firm's issues with lawyers leaving, including Andrea Zopp, who joined Sara Lee Corp. and then moved to Sears, Roebuck and Co., and Brett Hart, who also went to Sara Lee. Several Sonnenschein attorneys followed their lead.

Particularly ripe for such moves are fifth-year associates at big firms, said Vanessa Alvarez, president of General Counsel Consulting, an in-house counsel placement firm based in Atlanta. Joining the ranks of in-house counsel with former firm co-workers is attractive to outside counsel attorneys, who often perceive in-house positions as offering more of a work-life balance, she said.

"It's much easier to make a pitch and have colleagues come on board when they see the advantages," she said. "There is less of a risk of making a leap when you know what to expect."

In addition, more clients are hiring their own help instead of outsourcing it to firms, she said, which has driven an increase in demand within corporate counsel departments.

Also, in-house positions may offer attorneys more "ownership" of their work than positions at firms, a factor particularly attractive to associates as attaining equity partnership status has become a longer and more demanding process.

The Prestige London Law Firms - The Vault Rankings

Surveying law firms is a major industry with more awards and categories than you could shake a stick at. However, always interesting reading, the latest is a Vault survey of the most prestigious London law offices. Vault surveyed the firms between November 2005 and March 2006 - that's a heck of a survey period - and came out with their "prestige rankings".

The rankings are based on issues such as treatment by partners, formal training, informal training and mentoring, hours and compensation and then scored the firms against each other.

The top five - open the envelope please - are Slaughter and May, Freshfields, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Clifford Chance. A US firm is next up? Guess who?

No prizes, sorry.

Lawyers Pay And The Conumdrum of Trans-Atlantic Law Firms

One of the difficulties for lawyers working for US/UK law firms is the different remuneration packages on offer, which is OK for the recipients, but for the partners and associates it can cause problems. Take UK-based Lovells. They repeatedly return to their partners to consult on their 'lockstep' arrangements. After deciding there was little interest for a bonus pool or super points system, they now propose off-lockstep deals to attract lawyers in the US.

The problem is they simply irritate and annoy the 140-plus London partnership, while trying to placate the US operation a little more than one-tenth the size. Pay's important, but this endless restructuring and re-consulting just creates uncertainty and - ultimately - disillusioned lawyers.

Watch this space. . .

Law Jobs Online - Got to be a growing trend, right?

I'm hardly rewriting the Book of Genesis by pointing out that most jobs candidates - including of course lawyers - are looking online for their perfect match, in the same way that couples are coupling via online dating. It's just the way it is, and it's what is only going to grow and become more sophisticated as time goes on. A .recent survey by a British publisher in respect of the worldwide chemical industry showed that 71 per cent of those looking for jobs (or who might one day look) would go online to do so.

As I say, no surprise. Just better choices, greater transparency and - hopefully - better jobs for the right candidates

Still Work For Women To Do in Law - Or Their Male Counterparts

Women are still under-represented in the higher echelons of the law profession, as shown in a recent survey from The National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL)in the US. NAWL conducted a survey on retention and promotion of women in law firms, which found that


Although women lawyers are well-represented at the entry level of the profession, constituting 45% of associates, they make up only 16% of equity partners, 28% of of-counsel lawyers, and 26% of non-equity partners. The Survey also found that women play a less extensive role in the governance of law firms than male attorneys, with only 16% of governance committee members and 5% of managing partners being women.

How law jobs change - The bi-coastal law firm ambitions of Marc Dreier

One of the frequent complaints heard from 'branch office lawyers' is that they're alienated from the main office, or feel somehow disenfranchised. New York lawyer Marc Dreier runs a successful New York practice under the same name and has got not only ambitious plans to develop a bi-coastal practice, but also an innovative way of compensating lawyers.

Dreier runs his firm like a business, adopting an 'eat what you kill' attitude towards fees and an entrepreneurial attitude towards his firm's growth - including lawyer compensation. The lawyers are paid bonuses directly related to their fees generated with some working on what American Lawyer called "affiliates" that are often separate legal entities that share resources but maintain a separate entity.

So what does all this mean for the young lawyer looking for a good job? Flexibility. Be prepared to take on roles that didn't previously exist, in firms that didn't exist a few short years ago. Law jobs, just like law firms, are changing constantly.

Law Jobs For Everyone

We wish we could be so cocky - but the purpose of LawJobsCenter is to act as something of a "law jobs central" for those seeking great law jobs. We're an adjunct to lawfuel.com, which is setting up a law jobs alert service, so anything law jobs-related is "on".

Post away. Law Jobs Central is open for business.