Big Law Salary Increase

[Jaggers]

I think it's probably unlikely that the average big firm partner increased their compensation by either 60% or a million dollars. But good for him, I guess!

[Mountebank]

9 hours ago, C_Terror said:

https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2023/2023onsc4220/2023onsc4220.html?resultIndex=7

 

Saw this case pop up in linked in this week. Interesting read, especially since equity salaries in top Toronto firms are such a black box. I'll let you dig around through the case yourself, as it's all public information now. Also shocked that this partner would rather let this go to discovery instead of settling, as now everybody knows his compensation.

Long story short, this partner made about 1.5M pre pandemic, and about 2.5M post pandemic. Assuming he's an average partner at the firm, that means the average partner made about 1 MILLION DOLLARS more PER YEAR during the pandemic while us associates were worked to the bone. What pisses me right off is that firms took away the normal benefits of working late like expensed dinners, while also saving on other staff expenses. Then they have the gall to act like they were doing us an insane favor of providing us one time 10%-20% retention bonuses in one year while their compensation went up 60+%. When push came to shove, they finally agreed to a 20K base salary adjustment and made the associates sound like ungrateful animals for asking. All the while average partners were likely clearing an additional million dollars in their total comp. 

Unbelievable. Us Canadian big law associates are gigantic suckers.

What do you mean shocked he didn't settle to keep his income secret? He's telling everyone!

[C_Terror]

15 minutes ago, Jaggers said:

I think it's probably unlikely that the average big firm partner increased their compensation by either 60% or a million dollars. But good for him, I guess!

If you google his name, he's in a group that the firm isn't well known for. Couple that with the fact that 1.5M tracks the average equity partner's salary stat in Blakes in that Globe article a while back, I think it's reasonable to use him as an example his comp as an average equity partner at a Sister firm.  

[About3iqPoints]

3 hours ago, C_Terror said:

If you google his name, he's in a group that the firm isn't well known for. Couple that with the fact that 1.5M tracks the average equity partner's salary stat in Blakes in that Globe article a while back, I think it's reasonable to use him as an example his comp as an average equity partner at a Sister firm.  

Stikeman Elliott is a Band 2 Real Estate and Band 2 Real Estate Zoning/Land Use firm in Toronto, and the individual in question is a Band 1 Real Estate Zoning/Land Use Partner. Hardly your average equity partner.

[Jaggers]

I left Bay St after five years, so don't know a huge amount about partner compensation. I suspect that $1.5M is on the high side, but not truly unusual. But I also suspect that to go from $1.5 to $2.5M in one year probably is pretty unusual!

[Cool_name]

To further Jaggers point, to the extent it isn’t unusual (which I accept may be the case in some practice areas), it would mean swings the other way would be equally common. 
 

More to the point, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to any associate that partners do not pay associates anything close to what they bill. Just multiply your rate with your billables and compare that to your salary. The difference isn’t all overhead and write downs. 
 

The comparison will be flawed though, because you can’t just leave the firm and continue to bill at that rate for those hours, or likely even at all. If you could, you should leave. 
 

Law is probably one of the easiest profession to venture out on your own in. So, if you think you can do better financially or on any other subjective metric, then (assuming sufficient competence) do it.