According to some industry observers, $25 million to $30 million is the new top rung for valuable laterals, high-performing partners and some Big Law leaders. It’s still very rare, but not unfathomable.
Big Law’s most successful lawyers continue to take home bigger and bigger paychecks. But as their firms continue to make tectonic compensation shifts inside partnerships, does partner pay have nowhere to go but up?
It’s conceivable that pay increases could slow down or temporarily reverse, said law firm leaders, recruiters and other industry observers, but they mostly agreed that the going price for star lawyers is not some kind of bubble. It will keep rising as law firm profits soar and as law firms diversify their practices to hedge against any downturns, the sources said.
