I did some quick maths yesterday and worked out that my hourly pay rate is about 14% of what the firm charges for an hour of my time. That's even lower than I expected. Any idea how you compare?
The people that run firms are utter w**kers. They take eye-watering profits, spaff £££ on fancy premises, BD people, etc and pay junior staff peanuts in relative terms, luring them with a carrot of partnership (although salaried "partners" don't earn much more).
Solicitors have always been shysters, but at least in the old days you could expect to earn 33% of your salary. Then 25% became the norm. Nowadays anything over 20% is doing well.
Year just gone I billed a little over three times my salary. Combination of the joys of fixed fees and a property market where there aren't many mega transactions where you can bill more than the time it takes.
3x salary was the old rule of thumb - one to pay for you, one to pay for the overheads and support, one for the partners. Most big law firms run at much higher multiples these days so you are actually doing reasonably 'well'.
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Yes but how much do you bill v salary? Bet your salary is a lot more than 14%
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Typical ratios in UK professional services used to be
expected annual billing = 3x salary for lower paid professions with stable workloads
expected annual billing = 5x salary for higher paid professions with less stable workloads
For law firms with bad management / high recruitment and payoff costs I can imagine needing 7x salary
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The people that run firms are utter w**kers. They take eye-watering profits, spaff £££ on fancy premises, BD people, etc and pay junior staff peanuts in relative terms, luring them with a carrot of partnership (although salaried "partners" don't earn much more).
Solicitors have always been shysters, but at least in the old days you could expect to earn 33% of your salary. Then 25% became the norm. Nowadays anything over 20% is doing well.
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Year just gone I billed a little over three times my salary. Combination of the joys of fixed fees and a property market where there aren't many mega transactions where you can bill more than the time it takes.
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3x salary was the old rule of thumb - one to pay for you, one to pay for the overheads and support, one for the partners. Most big law firms run at much higher multiples these days so you are actually doing reasonably 'well'.
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Target is higher to be honest but in conveyancing it's hard to hit that without a few big high fee deals and without a really busy market.
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you can bill more than the time it takes
careless talk old boy!
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