Top global compensation & benefits lawyers. Uniting the tax, corporate, labor/employment and securities law skills necessary for the design,
Traditionally, law firms peg bonuses to profit measures like meeting or exceeding billable hours requirements, but more progressive employers are replacing that
Executive Compensation
Executive employment and severance agreements
How do law firms determine salaries & compensation?
For years, firms have come up with everything from simple to very complex formulas to determine law firm salaries and compensation.
These formulae consider metrics like client origination credit, matter origination credit, hours billed, non-billable firm activity, non-billable administrative responsibilities.
The list goes on and on.
How does a traditional law firm salary & bonus work?
Traditional law firm salary and bonus models often result in drama.
Instead of building a culture of collaboration, they create competition.
Health and life outside the firm go out the window as attorneys struggle to reach the required level for monetary reward.
Retirement Benefits
Defined contribution plans (401(k), profit sharing, ESOP and money purchase)
Should a law firm adopt a modern pay structure?
Adopting modern law firm pay structures rewards your lawyers, partners, and staff for the high-quality, valuable work they do each day.
Instead of rewarding them for the number of billable hours they can bring in.
It starts with a written compensation philosophy that establishes the how and why behind your compensation.
Stock and Stock-Based Compensation
Equity incentive plans and various equity awards under such plans (e.g., stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance awards), including state-of-the-art design alternatives.
Why do law firms need a compensation model?
Firms must adopt compensation models that reward everyone who is working to advance its core values and improve the client experience while managing profitable growth.
Traditional law firm salary and bonus models often result in drama.
Instead of building a culture of collaboration, they create competition.
Jackson Kelly PLLC, known as Jackson Kelly, is a full service law firm and one of the 250 largest law firms headquartered in the United States.
The firm, which has a strong presence in Appalachia and the Midwestern United States, was formed in 1822 when Benjamin H.
Smith began practicing law in what was then Charleston, Virginia. U.S.
News & World Report ranks the firm as the nation's best in mining and mineral law, but as a full-service law firm, Jackson Kelly provides legal counseling and litigation to a wide range of clients across many practice areas.
The firm employs more than 160 lawyers in offices throughout West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Colorado.
System of employee remuneration
Lockstep compensation is a system of remuneration in which employees' salaries are based purely on their seniority within the organization.
For example, in the legal profession, where this system is most commonly found, all law school graduates hired by a law firm who graduated in the same year receive the same base pay regardless of background, experience, or ability.
These associates will also receive automatic annual pay raises, bonuses, and promotions.
Alternatively, some law firms implement a lockstep compensation system starting with partners or partner-track associates.
During the late-2000s financial crisis, some law firms began replacing the lockstep system with merit-based systems.
