More Articles & Tips  

Associate Salaries: Higher and Higher?
Law firm partners in Canada hoping associates salaries will face downward pressures might be disappointed: associate pay continues to climb, affected by myriad factors beyond the overall economic crunch.

The New Breed of Associate
Calgary’s Thackray Burgess might just revolutionize associate compensation.

How to Design the Right Compensation System for Your Law Firm
The best compensation approach gets away from a system that rewards only the individuals who stand out from the crowd, by also rewarding those individuals who help the crowd perform better.
 
Best practices for setting managing partner pay
Law firms generally “get” the idea that they have to pay for physical assets and for the efforts of associates, partners and support staff. But they generally do not get that they have to pay for management or, alternatively, they have a hard time figuring out how to do it right.

How to Design the Right Compensation System for Your Law Firm
Whether it's a Bay Street firm in Toronto, a Magic Circle firm in London, or a Wall Street firm in New York, there's little doubt that the rich keep getting richer when it comes to law firm compensation.

The Complex Conundrum of Cash and Lawyer Compensation
If your revenues from a given client are less than the costs to service that client in lawyer and staff compensation, your law firm is like an athlete exercising in hot weather. Lawyers often see only the intake—the cash “hydration” of revenue—and do not realize the dehydration that dissipates cash faster than the money comes in. 

From Across the Web  

Credit where it’s due
Sorting out the thorny problem of compensation for origination.

Hourly wages
The failure of billable-hour compensation.

Compensation for the New Partner
Six considerations for assessing a rookie partner’s compensation.

Size Matters
The median salary spread for a first-year associate at a 2 -25 lawyer firm, versus a 500+ firm, is $77,000...

Boom or Bust
Graduates of 58 law schools make average starting salaries of $60,000 or less, a fact ignored by many of the stories touting $160,000 starting salaries at big law firms.