Biglaw

Some Law Firms Have Misleading Employment Data

There are many ways that law firms fudge their employment numbers,

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About a decade ago, many law schools advertised somewhat misleading employment data. For instance, certain law schools listed the median starting salaries of graduates based on sample sizes that were unreasonably small so the statistic did not give an accurate picture of the salaries that graduates could expect. In addition, some law schools played games with the percentage of graduates employed at graduation and nine months after graduation so that the employment outcomes of these schools seemed better than they actually were. Thankfully, legal organizations and nonprofits, including Law School Transparency, helped highlight how certain law schools were providing potentially misleading statistics, and this started a shift in legal education. Indeed, it is much more difficult now for law schools to fudge their employment data, and this is good for law students and applicants.

However, law firms still routinely advertise misleading employment statistics, and that can have an impact on the decisions of individuals who may choose to apply for jobs at such firms. More effort should be devoted to reducing any potentially misleading statistics so that applicants can have an accurate picture of the employment data at a firm.

Many law firms provide their employment data to employment directories and other organizations so that people can purportedly get a sense of salaries and other employment information at these shops. Every time I was on the hunt for a new job in my career, I relied on such directories to determine if I wanted to apply to a given firm. However, the statistics advertised were rarely accurate when compared to the actual reality at many law firms.

For instance, numerous law firms advertise their starting salaries, and some law firms advertise their pay scale for associates of all kinds of seniority. This is perhaps the most critical employment statistic for any applicant at a firm, since most people choose to work for one law firm or another based on how much money they are paid. However, firms often do not pay many associates the starting salary advertised or stick to their purported pay scale for numerous attorneys at the firm.

For instance, many law firms pay attorneys different amounts of money depending on the practice area of an associate. Of course, clients who have work in given practice areas may pay more money than others, so it makes sense that associates will be paid different amounts of money depending on the type of work they do. However, law firms should at least advertise that starting salaries differ between practice areas so applicants have the most information possible.

I have been misled by inaccurate employment data of law firms at several points in my career. For example, several years after graduating from law school, I applied to work in a mass-torts practice group of a national law firm. Naturally, I thought that I would be paid at least the advertised starting salary. In actuality, the salary offered to me was far less, even though I had several years of experience. I would have appreciated knowing what the actual starting salary was for people in my situation before beginning the application process.

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At other firms, the advertised starting salary only applies to attorneys who start at the firm through summer programs and then progress at the firm through the in-house promotion process. Lateral hires to a firm may be paid less money because the quality of their work cannot purportedly be evaluated as easily as attorneys who have worked at a firm from the beginning of their careers. This seems reasonable, but firms should advertise the complexity in determining compensation and not lead people into thinking a firm has a lockstep compensation formula.

Another statistic that is somewhat misleading is how long it takes to become partner at a shop. Many firms advertise in employment directories if they are partnership track and how many years it typically takes to become an equity or a nonequity partner so people can evaluate the promotion process. However, firms rarely advertise the percentage of people who start at a firm and eventually leave before they can be promoted to partnership. In addition, firms rarely advertise the number of people who are promoted to counsel positions rather than partnership at the end of the supposed partnership-track period, which is usually a much more commonplace occurrence than making partner. Such statistics and omissions can mislead applicants about their actual chances of becoming an equity or nonequity partner at a firm.

There are many other ways that law firms fudge their employment numbers, and I am not even talking about nonpartnership-track associates, staff attorney roles, and other ways that firms can enlarge their headcount while reducing expenses (I might have to write an article on that in the future!). Nevertheless, law firms undoubtedly do not provide the most accurate picture when they advertise their employment statistics. Perhaps this issue is not as important as the trend of law schools fudging their data years ago, but applicants to law firms and others within the legal profession should recognize that some law firms have misleading employment statistics.

Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

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