If you ask me, I think that the insights offered in this column are all that you need to succeed as a small-firm attorney. I have received many emails, however, suggesting that facts might be as valuable as my opinions. Of course, that’s crazy.
Recently I received an email from a young small-firm associate who wrote that he was going to ask his boss for a raise but, unlike Biglaw, he had no idea what other associates at comparable firms were making. He appreciated the survey results given by my predecessor, Josh Dickinson (available here and here), but he wanted more specificity. And only 650 people responded to the previous survey, the majority of them junior associates who were relatively new to small-firm practice. Let’s see if we can do better than that.
Please click here to take the survey.
Paying for Law School in 2025: A Straight-Talk Playbook
Juno has consistently secured the best private loan deals for students at the Top MBA programs since 2018—now they’re bringing that same offer to law students, at no cost. Students can check their personalized offers at juno.us/atl This article is for general information only and is not personal financial advice.
If we get enough responses, I will attempt to compile results that offer the information available to Biglaw associates (i.e., average salary per class year for __ hours billed in ___ city).
Knowledge is power, my friends. Maybe we can all ask for a raise (except for the lucky few who make the amounts we will ask for). Or, if we all make too little, maybe we can arrange a little gathering, a la Madison, Wisconsin.
Small Firm Compensation Survey [Survey Monkey]
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Proper trust accounting and three-way reconciliation are essential for protecting client funds and avoiding serious compliance risks. In this guide, we break down these critical processes and show how legal-specific software can help your firm stay accurate, efficient, and audit-ready.
When not writing about small law firms for Above the Law, Valerie Katz (not her real name) works at a small firm in Chicago. You can reach her by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @ValerieLKatz.