attorney salary question

[Phil Conners]

I am in negotiations for my salary at medium sized law firm in Houston. I am a second year lawyer. What is the salary range?

 

[jimmyjazz]

$167,642.

 

[Dr Fear]

Phil... like the groundhog?

On a related note, do I really need to keep filing these "certificates of written discovery?"

Also, the Texas DTPA requires a demand letter 60 days before filing suit. What if I am alleging a DTPA cause of action in a counterclaim? Do I still have to follow the 60 days rule? My instinct says that they waived the 60 days by suing my guy. Thoughts?

 

[ChazUTX]

Not sure it's the same type of law you do Phil, but I have a friend that lives in Seattle who is 2-3 years out of law school like yourself and makes around $70k. I believe you know who I'm talking about too.

 

[pasotex]

The answer to your DTPA question is in the statute. You do not need to give a 60 days notice to file a DTPA counterclaim. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ann. sec. 17.505 (b).

 

[Bookman]

And certificates of written discovery are meaningless unless they're required by local rules, although I'll use them when I send requests for admissions to a pro-se defendant.

 

[longyak]

google law salaries and Houston. Associates love to share and compare what they make. BTW- Aren't most firms lock step on salary by year and the bonus is where your merit pay(better known as hours billed) shows up? Attorney salaries Houston

I suggest you don't tell anyone with the firm you're applying with that you didn't know how to research this. You can see on this thread how the attorneys are acting about your question- the equivalent of what I had for lunch/dinner. Nobody wants a 2nd year that can't do research as research is pretty much your whole job as a 2nd year.

 

[CaboWabo]

I've never understood those certificates of written discovery. It's just another filing lawyers can bill for.

 

[Steel Shank]

{Steel Shank slowly shaking head back and forth}

 

[utgrad06]

Actually, longyak, that link you posted gives salaries that are extremely out of date (my salary is $60,000 more than that chart says it is) and it lists only big firms - not medium size firms as the OP requested. So apparently you're not so good at researching this information either.
I'm an attorney and I don't think this is a stupid question at all. It is very easy to find salary information for big firms - which is lock-step for the most post and disclosed; medium size firms have much wider variance.

 

[dendox]

I too am very interested in the answer to this question. I have tried to research this for various cities and find that it is hard to find small to medium sized firm information.

As was said, large firm information is broadcast everywhere.
Sorry I don't have an answer to your question.

 

[Summerof79]

Ask for more than you think you can get. Then argue from there....

 

[si se puede]

I don't know what you started at, but it's been my experience that midlaw firms in the major metros start somewhere between $50K and $75K/year. Any employer that's worth a damn will give its workers at least a 3 percent COL raise every year. Add that to your increased value after your first year, and I don't think a 5-10 percent raise would be unjustified.

As a point of reference, a friend's sister in Houston was at a mid-size firm and was about to break six digits after four years; I believe she started around $70K.

I know of several firms in small markets that don't have a firm billable requirement, but the unspoken rule is you bill at least 3 times your salary. If you were able to bill between 1500 and 2000 during your first year, asking for 1/3-1/4 of that isn't out of line, especially if you've brought in some business.

 

[Phil Conners]

Thanks for those that tried to be helpful. I did do research on this topic and I'm doing more research here. It blows me away that people think they can be an *** since they are behind a computer.

 

[chango]

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[Steel Shank]

I am quite capable of being an *** when I'm away from the computer, thank you very much.

 

[khorn]

I hate lawyers.

 

[longyak]

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[DeadHorse]

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[Stuck_At_Work]

Wow. I think you guys are seriously short changing attorney salaries. Doesn't your law school provide this type of information to its students? When my friends graduated from law school, they had a pretty good idea of what to expect from each law firm. My guess is 80k-120k...

 

[si se puede]

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[Bookman]

www.elsblog.org/the_empirical_legal_studi/2007/09/distribution-of.html

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