In-House Lawyers Make More, But Not Like Associates
Bloomberg Law reports that salaries for in-house attorneys are increasing by more than four percent annually, but almost half are still unhappy with what they’re being paid, according to a survey released this week.
The BarkerGilmore survey of trends in legal department compensation also asked in-house attorneys to compare themselves to firm lawyers by asking them to rate their pay relative to their “peers.”
“While their salaries are going up at a rate of 4.2 percent across industries — well above the U.S.’s 2015 inflation rate of 0.1 percent — 44 percent of respondents said their compensation, including cash bonuses and equity awards, is ‘below or significantly below that of their peers,’ ” reports Bloomberg’s Blake Edwards.
The survey found that lawyers in the services industry reported the highest dissatisfaction rates, while lawyers in the energy sector were most likely to be looking for new jobs.