Are You A Partner? Here's How Your Compensation Stacks Up

At U.S. law firms, members of the partnership have roles that come with big responsibilities and big payoffs. Our deep dive into Law360 Pulse's recent survey of law firm partners reveals how much partners are rewarded for their efforts.

Generally speaking, many of the partners who responded to our survey are making bank. Nearly 45% of respondents said they make at least $500,000 a year, and more than half said they were making at least $400,000 a year.

Law360 Pulse's inaugural Partner Compensation survey was conducted between Sept. 1 and Oct. 16, 2020. We surveyed law firms with at least 25 attorneys and received 584 responses.

Respondents reported a wide range of total compensation, from less than $200,000 on the low end to over a million annually on the high end.

While many partners reported high compensation levels, factors including their partnership status, the size of the law firm, the law school they attended, and their gender may determine exactly how much is added to their coffers annually.

Among equity partners, for example, the median compensation was $650,000. For nonequity partners it was nearly $300,000.


Partners at the biggest of BigLaw firms also reported some eye-popping compensation.

One-third of respondents at the largest law firms, with 1,000 or more attorneys, said they were making $1 million or more. More than 70% of respondents from those firms said they were making at least $400,000.

By contrast, more than half of the partners at smaller law firms, with under 200 attorneys, said they made less than $400,000 a year. And one-fifth of partners at smaller firms reported pulling in under $200,000.


Partners at law firms in the middle, with total attorney headcounts between 200 and 999 attorneys, also struck middle ground, with nearly 40% reporting that they received under $400,000 in compensation and over 40% reporting more than $400,000 but less than $1 million in compensation. When it came to the biggest payouts — $1 million or more — 15% of respondents from these law firms said they collected that much every year.

Differences in compensation totals also appeared to be a matter of degrees. Among partners who attended a Top 25 law school, according to the law school rankings compiled by U.S. News and World Report, more than half reported that their compensation was at least $500,000, as compared with just under 40% for both respondents with an alma mater ranked 26th through 100th and those with a law school degree from a school ranked outside of the top 100.


While a law firm isn't typically making individual compensation decisions based on where each attorney went to law school, some of the most profitable law firms often recruit largely from top-tier law schools.

"Law school is a factor as to where you can go," said Larry Scott, senior director at recruitment firm Parker and Lynch Legal.

There were also notable differences between the median compensation enjoyed by male partners, about $463,000, and the median compensation reported by female partners, about $353,000.

Male attorneys were also more likely than female attorneys to report earning more than $500,000, and more likely to report earning more than $750,000.

Among male partners, 41% bill $700 or more per hour. About one-third of female partners fell into the same category.


The percentage of female attorneys at major law firms has grown slightly in recent years, but although women now make up more than half of law school students, they make up less than 40% of attorneys in firms, and only about 22% of equity partners, according to Law360's 2020 Glass Ceiling Report. This suggests that women are less likely than their male counterparts to be promoted and move up the firm ranks.

But no matter how much they made, less than a third of survey respondents, both male and female, said they make "about the same" as other partners. More than 40% of respondents said they make "somewhat less" or "much less" than their fellow partners. On the other end of the spectrum, about 20% said they were making somewhat more than their legal industry peers, while just 5% of survey respondents said they were making much more.

Women were also more likely than men to say they believe that they are paid less than their colleagues. Half of female survey respondents said they were paid somewhat less or much less than their peers, as compared with 40% for male respondents.

Attending a top 25 law school also did not appear to assuage those internal assessments. More than 40% of survey respondents who attended top 25 schools said they made somewhat less or much less than their peers. For those who attended schools outside of the top 100, nearly half said they earned less than their peers.


The path to increasing a partner's annual compensation may lie in joining another firm. For respondents who came in as lateral partners, rather than taking the homegrown path through the associate ranks, more than half said their total compensation increased and about a third said their total compensation increased by more than 20% when they joined their current firm.

"Making a lateral move is usually the best way to accelerate your career," Scott said.

But whether they became a partner by rising through the ranks or by joining the firm in a lateral move, the payoffs of being a partner still feel satisfactory for many of the partners who responded to our survey.

In fact, a majority of respondents — 60% — classified themselves as very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their total compensation. Among partners who reported compensation levels of $750,000 or more, more than three-quarters reported that they were at least somewhat satisfied with their compensation.

Harrison Barnes, managing director at legal placement firm BCG Attorney Search, said he often hears reports that partners are satisfied with their compensation, but suggested that some of that may be because many lawyers who make partner often take that title to heart, working together with their fellows to ensure the whole firm is profitable.

"The people that become partners … it tends to be self-selecting. I know partners that are making half of what they should, but a lot of the best partners are team players. So they will stick it out," Barnes said.


More than 60% of partners who responded to our survey also said they are currently making the highest salary of their career. For the biggest of BigLaw, law firms with at least 1,000 attorneys, nearly 70% of respondents said they were making the highest salary of their career. Two-thirds of female partners who responded said they were making the highest salary of their careers, and 62% of men said they were.

And whether the choice has to do with their current level of compensation, or the rewarding nature of their work, the vast majority of survey respondents said they weren't looking for greener pastures.

Overall, nearly 80% of survey respondents said they hope to stay at their current firm for the rest of their career, although the responses were slightly different for women and men. More than 80% of men affirmed they hope to remain at their current firm, while just over 70% of women said the same.

Partners at smaller firms, those with under 200 attorneys, were also a bit more likely to say they intended to stay with their firms for the rest of their careers — 82% — as opposed to 77% for those who work at firms with more than 1,000 attorneys.

"When a partner is at a law firm, they have a lot of political capital. They'll be secure. They won't want to disturb their clients and move, and the devil you know is a lot better, many times, than the one you don't. So I think that's one of the reasons they say that," Barnes said.

--Editing by Pamela Wilkinson, Kerry Benn, John Campbell and Gerald Schifman.

Methodology: The Law360 Pulse Partner Compensation survey was conducted between Sept. 1 and Oct. 16, 2020, and included 584 participants at law firms with at least 25 attorneys. The survey was anonymous and will not connect any individual response with any person. The average firm headcount of respondents is 647 and the average number of partners at respondents' firms is 257. On average, responding partners have been at the partner level for 12 years. In data visualizations, numbers may total to more than 100% due to rounding. Total respondents include male, female, nonbinary and those who declined to identify.

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