Attorney salaries rank among the highest in all professions. As a firm owner or human resources professional, it's your job to make sure you're getting what you pay for. But you also want to provide a fair and competitive wage to keep competent attorneys on staff.
Setting specific salary guidelines and performance benchmarks requires a lot of planning and research. The ultimate goal should be coming up with a compensation plan that boosts productivity but also fits in with your bottom line.
A number of factors go into determining salary of a lawyer, including:
1. Law salary depends heavily on location. A lawyer in a small Midwest city isn't going to expect as much in salary as a lawyer working in a major coastal metropolis.
2. The area of law expertise or the particular position within the firm can sway salary. Corporate law salaries are usually the highest.
3. Legal salaries are lower at a smaller firm or one that is set up as a non-profit.
4. Salary of a lawyer will also depend upon years of experience.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Research legal salaries
Quite a bit of lawyer salary survey information can be found online. That information can help you determine what salaries are appropriate and develop compensation policies.
I recommend: Mercer's ePrism and Mercer PayMonitor tools may prove to be helpful. Or check out
Vault for law salary information. You must, however, sign up for a gold membership to access full details.
Educate yourself on lawyer salary information by attending a webinar
Standards in salaries change constantly. Keeping informed on trends in the human resources and management fields can prove to be beneficial. Depending on your position, attending a webinar could also count as continuing education hours.
I recommend: The
Economic Research Institute's distance learning center offers a variety of human resources courses for free. For a fee, various salary management webinars are available from
WorldatWork.
Consider purchasing software to help with setting lawyer salaries
A number of software companies offer compensation packages to help out with the task. Make sure you review all of the functions before you purchase, as some may not apply specifically to the law field. If anything, you may find the software good as a guide.
I recommend: Order a free trial, schedule a demo or get a product tour of
Halogen Software's eCompensation software package. Or check out
LaserBeam Software for its LaserComp 4.0 software. View a slide show about the software and see what the application looks like.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Average lawyer salary for those in private practice with 4 to 9 years of experience can range from $118,000 to $184,000 at a large law firm. If the firm ranks in the Top 100 firms in the United States, the average salary can top out at $500,000 or more annually.
The official source of Law Salary Tools is the Law Salary Tools page at Business.com
Related Resources from Business.com
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