Here is the standard career graph of a lawyer:
Associate – A0 (fresher), A1, A2, A3, etc.
- Associates are responsible for doing the basic drafting, research, all legwork, preparing base drafts, coordinating with clients
- Seniors may take them along for a meeting, make notes, schedule meetings, send emails
- Junior associates have minimal client exposure in big law firms, but in smaller firms, they have to interact with clients frequently
- Your primary job is to make your senior associate’s life easier.
- If seniors like your work and find you reliable, they might ask you to draft a transaction document. You can slowly progress into the negotiation of agreements as well.
- It takes 3-5 years to move to the designation of Senior Associate, depending on your performance and the firm’s policies.
Senior Associate – 5 years, or faster if you obtain a double promotion
- You may be expected to handle transactions on your own, assist other senior associates or principal associates/partners in a deal, manage a team of junior associates, and get them to deliver.
- You will also review associates’ work + execute the work on the deals
- Have much more client interaction for day-to-day activities, coordination, and meetings
- If you get a client at the SA level, you will become a PA next year – happened with Jayantika at a law firm
- You may earn anywhere between INR 25-35 lakhs per year, sometimes even more. From their second year onwards, senior associates in big law firms or in boutique law firms can earn more than INR 40 lakhs.
Principal Associate/ Managing Associate/ Counsel (7 years)
- Principal associates are lawyers on a partner track. They have been there for 6-7 years usually and carry out most of the management work in the firm. As a principal associate, you will get to handle most of your clients.
- The partner may give transactions to run as your own, manage the team of senior and junior associates, and even hire and fire people. They are in control of a transaction, responsible for making sure whatever the partner sees is correct execution and the partner does not spend time fixing errors.
- Many people underestimate the importance of the Principal Associate and try to reach out to partners in law firms when seeking employment.
- Principal Associates actually have the ability to recommend you for employment to partners and more often than not, the partners will listen to them.
- Client acquisition and business development activities usually start here. They are usually trying to win clients on their own because if they can land clients, they will move faster to the partner position.
- Salaries: Depending on the firm, your experience, and your performance, principal associates can make anywhere between INR 36-60 lakhs per year, sometimes even more.
Bonuses: In senior positions, the bonus becomes a bigger component of your salary. At the PA or partner level, 30-50% of your compensation may be in the form of a bonus.
Partner (8-12 years)
- Although partners are involved in reviewing the work, advising on the transactions, and in general, getting the work done, their major role is to secure business for the firm and bring more work.
- Lawyers are promoted to partners after acquiring sufficient legal experience of 8-12 years, depending upon the type of law firm. The experience alone is rarely enough, and one needs to be a leader within and outside the firm, bringing in enough business or being really good at getting work done.
- Salaried Partners are responsible for the delivery of all the work for the transaction and business development.
- Law firm salaried partners easily earn upwards of INR 70 lakhs to a few crores per year. A tier-1 law firm’s M&A lawyer, at partner level (with around 10 years of work experience), receives average all-inclusive annual pay in the range of 90 lakhs and 1.2 crores.
- There are of course stalwart partners, the shakers and movers of the M&A industry, who could take home 20 times more than that.
- A young partner with 10-15 years of experience can earn up to 10 to 20 times that of an associate.
- Equity partners oversee everything that happens in their team – usually, a few salaried partners report to them. They are only involved in resolving the most difficult roadblocks of a deal.
- It takes 15-20 years to get to equity partner level but several partners have done it faster. Equity partners in big firms make more than a crore, and they can earn huge performance bonuses too.
- The Managing Partner is responsible for business development, meeting new clients, and managing the partners
If the firm is in expansion mode, it takes less time to become a partner.
My senior who graduated in 2008, became a senior associate at Trilegal in 2.5 years (by 2011), partner in 5 years, and equity partner in 7 years (2015).
He was the lead partner from Trilegal who represented Alibaba and Ant Financial in the Paytm IPO.
It is important to note that not everyone makes partner.
In a law firm, you can expect steady and predictable growth, if you can stick it out. Law firms do not easily want to let go of lawyers as far as it can be avoided, because it takes a lot of time to train them or find someone who can adjust to their culture.
Several young lawyers make partners much earlier by joining smaller or boutique firms.
Many lawyers find it financially more rewarding to start their own law firms a few years down the line.
In a small law firm, the path can be faster and more flexible. You must be able to:
- Deliver work
- Bring in work (this is the hardest part)
- How hard is it to replace you?
You should be able to work in a team with other partners and build your team so that you can handle more matters, clients should recognize your work and specifically want you on deals.
If you can do all this, a firm will go out of its way to retain you. They will want to make the terms sweet for you to stay.
The biggest fear of a managing partner is that a talented partner may leave to start his or her own firm.
Worse, you may leave with their clients.
But before they promote you, they may want to see that you stick around for long enough.
Other benefits of working at a law firm are secondments at large corporate clients (this is an excellent way for a lawyer to move on to the in-house roles in large MNCs like Google or Facebook), travelling for due diligence or deal-making or disputes where you get to in 5-star hotels on client’s expense, and domestic and international retreats for the team or for high performers.
After 2 years, a lot of lawyers change jobs, as they have a clearer understanding of what kind of work they want to do or what work environment they want.
The first 2 years is the most critical period for a law firm lawyer. If you can make things work out at this stage without burning out, you will probably find your rhythm and place in the firm.
This is where it gets easier – if you want to move to a different law firm, say, to a smaller law firm, or to a bigger firm from a smaller firm, or to a different big law firm, or to move to in-house counsel roles.
This is one of the best times to work in a law firm.
There are more law firms, and it is easier to become a partner in a good law firm due to the expansion of client industries and the growth of law firms.
It is also easier to start your own law firm eventually if you learn how to get your own clients and build a track record of working in a law firm.
Do you want to know how you can get a law firm job?
Btw, this career graph is not applicable to young lawyers alone, even experienced lawyers can get law firm jobs as associates/senior associates or partners, provided you have the right kind of skills and have built a track record.
Due to high demand for trained talent at law firms, age is not really a barrier.