How much does a partner in a law firm earn?

marybelle01

shegirl wrote: »

It read as a general comment to me.

Not when you read the quote it was attached to, the context of the OP that it was responding to, or the fact that I specifically referred to a partner in the text!

Nicki

dizzyrascal wrote: »

Could easily be about the 250k mark.
Trainees at City law companies can start on 45 - 60k at the moment on completion of the LPC.
A partner with 10 years PQE would be considered to be at the peak of their career.
In theory, if the law firm is doing very well then the sky's the limit. They may also sit on Boards as non-executive directors etc. So extra income is possible.

Rubbish, I'm afraid. A lawyer with 10 years PQE in the city would be fairly new to partnership, and more likely to be a salaried partner than an equity partner. It would be very unusual to reach partnership before 5 years PQE in the city, and much more common to be 7-8 years PQE.

In addition, there are two types of partnerships - salaried or equity. A newish partner of around the level of qualification that the OP cites would be much more likely to be a salaried partner, which would mean that they did not share in the profits, but was paid only slightly more than an employed solicitor of the same level of qualification. It very much depends on the kind of law, and the size and reputation of the firm, but anywhere between £150k to £250k would sound in the right ballpark.

An equity partnership requires that the partner buys into the partnership, and then shares profits. This can be done in a number of ways. The two most common are lockstep (where the share each partner gets of the total profits is set out in advance) and "eat what you kill" where each partner gets a share proportionate to the amount of business they have brought in that year. The amount they make will vary enormously. When I left my first law firm as a 1 year qualified solicitor for a firm paying a lot more, I had an exit interview with one of the equity partners who when I said I was in part leaving because they couldn't match my salary expectations, admitted I was earning more than him at that point! In the new firm, I went to, the equity partners were clearly extremely wealthy individuals however.

dizzyrascal

Sorry Nicki
I'm not clear on which bit of my post is rubbish?
You seem to be in agreement (roughly) on the earnings.
I only posted to dispute the 20k figure that was being discussed

Nicki

dizzyrascal wrote: »

Sorry Nicki
I'm not clear on which bit of my post is rubbish?
You seem to be in agreement (roughly) on the earnings.
I only posted to dispute the 20k figure that was being discussed

Sorry, that a partner with 10 years PQE is at "the peak of their career". In fact a partner with 10 years PQE will be at the most junior level of partnership. A high earning partner at the peak of their career will usually have a minimum of 15-20 years PQE

Sambucus_Nigra

Who knows? Why don't you ask them?