- law dawg
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Each year at this time we like to take a look at salaries and bonuses. In years past, we did a compensation survey to give you an idea of how much money attorneys in Las Vegas make. You can see the results for 2017 and 2016 by clicking on the links. (Arizona does its own detailed survey every three years on a much larger scale. You can view the 2022 results in Arizona Attorney magazine. While’s it not exactly the same as Nevada, it has some useful information to consider.) What do you think about the current state of pay for attorneys here? Are you underpaid or overpaid? Did you get a bonus? Has your billable hour requirement gone up or down this year? Any predictions on where compensation is headed? Is inflation dramatically altering your firm’s pay structure?
For those of you willing to share some details about your pay, we suggest leaving a comment that puts some your information in the following format: [Years in practice]-[Type of practice: CR for criminal, CI for civil, F for family, G for government, P for private practice]-[2022 gross salary to the nearest $10K+bonus if any](Yearly billable requirement). Example for someone who has practiced for 17 years and does private practice criminal defense for a gross salary of $387,000 with no bonus other than being their own boss with no billable requirement:
17-CR/P-390,000+no bonus(none)
We know it’s not exact, but maybe it will help someone else in the legal community figure out what they should be making.
24 Solo – CI/P $476k in 2023 – no bonus because its all mine anyway, working 30-35 hours a week.
12 D: CI $180K, 1950 billable +$10K Bonus. New to this firm but understand the billable amount has been pretty consistent last five years or so. It feels like associate pay is going up because retention/recruitment seems like it’s been very difficult compared to years past. (that’s another discussion that has been dealt with quite eloquently on the board a couple weeks ago)
7-CL/P-120,000+80,000 give or take depending on performance (none)
Basically I just get 60% of what I bring in. Salary vs bonus structure is up to me. I chose 120 as it is plenty to cover my day to day and my bonuses go to savings/investments every year.
7 Gov – $110k (not counting retirement) + $500 a quarter. I think we technically have a 40 hour/week minimum (2080/year) but that counts everything – holidays, sick leave, unbillable administrative tasks, etc.
10 – CI/In-house – $165k, $10k-30k bonus (depends on individual/company performance). No billables.
how does your hour break down compare to pre in house life. A staff counsel i worked with a lot advised it was probably less time in full but more ‘around the clock’ than his firm life.
I generally work 9-5ish and sometimes occasionally work later if there’s a lot going on. I’m also more available to the client (company) than I was before, but I rarely get bothered after 6pm or before 8am.
I worked a few insurance defense jobs before, so the work/life balance is significantly improved. I can take off at 2pm or roll in at 10am when my kids have a school thing and no one cares. I can take a day off (or a holiday) and not worry about when I’m going to make up those 8 billable hours.
100% happy with going in-house and I have no intention at working at a firm ever again. Also note – this is a real in-house position, not captive counsel at an insurance company.
10 years, CI (private practice, mostly defense side, but it varies) — $340,000. No bonus. Average around 1,800ish billable hours.
Solo or larger firm?
OP here, it’s a larger firm.
That’s a pretty nice compensation/billable combo.
12-CI-P, $225,000. $5,000 Christmas bonus. $125,000 salary. $95,000 origination.
14 CL (ID mostly) $155k salary $120k profit share/bonus
30+ Solo CI/P – will gross around $375k this year. I’ll probably be lucky to do half that much next year, but I’m semi-retired and rarely work more than 20-30 hours per week. Keep the overhead ultra-low and enjoy life a little more.
25 G – $175k plus PTO sellback (bonus) $20k (plus PERS). Reasonable hours; lots of vacation and paid time off; I will get paid out for my (fairly substantial) sick leave time although we moved to general PTO a while back.
Curious to know the gender breakdown of the posters too.
That would be difficult. There are over 1,000 genders
Bring it Anon!
9 CI-P 170k salary + 5500 yearly bonus +150k origination commissions
14 -inhouse $350k base + 40% bonus + 40% equity (subject to vesting)
How did you get there? What’s the special sauce?
I love Las Vegas https://news.yahoo.com/suspect-woman-las-vegas-kidnapping-201121513.html?
As I sit here enjoying the 2 lbs box of Sees chocolates that my court reporter sent me, it struck me as a good topic for the blog. What have you gotten as gifts from other professionals and which company in town gives the best gifts?
Ooooor. What do you send as gifts? Baskets? Chocolates? Gift Cards?
I usually do Harry & Davids pears.
5-F-340k
11 CI/P – $180K + $30k bonus (1800ish)
12-solo PI (2 staff)-750k firm gross/400k net.
Office rent paid to myself bc we own the office. I bought it with an sba loan right before the rate increases and I’m locked at 4.25% for 10 yrs on a 500k loan. Gained about 400k in equity in 2 yrs.
Best work life balance I could ever imagine.
2nd question: how do you mostly get business?
Word of mouth
Networking
Google Ads
Facebook Ads
Other Business Development
And for those who only pay for online advertisements, are you actually paying $100/ad to the Bar Overlords?
I spent very little on advertising for the first 5-6 yrs while my wife and I had 3 kids. Net about 200-250k for those years. Nearly all cases are referral.
I have a litigation background from doing first 4 years in med mal defense. 8 yrs solo.
I’m just now thinking about spending more on advertising but my work life balance is so good I don’t want to fuck that up running a volume shop so it’s a balance.
The breakdown is about 80% referral/20% interwebs. I take lots of phone calls trying to find the
gold. But sometimes the random internet callers have good cases and it’s with it if you know how to litigate injury claims.
9 D: CL $220K, $40-50k bonus, 1800-2000 billable