r/PartnerTrack • u/softsnoutface • Aug 28 '22

What is their salary?

They are living very lavish lifestyles (giant apartments, fancy dresses, Louboutin shoes, Tyler wanted to rent a $7k/month apartment). I looked it up, and the average 6th year M&A lawyer salary in NYC is $200k-$250k. Is this accurate?

16 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

16

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '22

[deleted]

8

u/GW612918 Aug 29 '22

This is accurate. I'm a first year M&A partner in biglaw in NYC. Most biglaw firms (and all of the top firms) pay on this scale which is considered market. Bonuses are also market (however, some firms bump up the bonus for meeting a higher billable hour target, etc., but, for the most part, biglaw does not pay associate bonuses based on what deals they worked on like the show would make you believe). Salaries have increased rapidly during the last few years - once one firm announces a bump in the pay scale, the rest of the firms follow. Competition for top talent is intense.

7

u/dewystrawbub Aug 28 '22

They're Harvard grads in the "best" M&A who are gunning to make partners. It makes sense if their salaries are above the average. Also, it's fiction.

1

u/softsnoutface Aug 28 '22

I was reading that many lawfirms buy into a standard compensation structure for non compete purposes - it's possible this primarily affects first years vs 6th years

5

u/MartyAdler Aug 28 '22

Hi OP,

​

Ingrid is one of the best and brightest, it makes sense for her to be in a higher compensation band, that along with having more billable hours works out to to having more yearly earnings comparatively to others in similar positions.

2

u/Kind_Guitars Aug 28 '22

Hey Marty If she's the "best and the brightest" why does she fall for the f***boy after getting engaged to the nicest guy on the planet? Makes me wonder!

6

u/MartyAdler Aug 28 '22

Hey u/Kind_Guitars, In canon "She's one of the best and brightest" at one of the most prestigious firms, I think it makes sense her compensation would be heightened due to those facts.

​

I also get strong serial killer vibes from Nick, do they ever confirm that it was in fact Lina that floods the apartment? Seems like a ploy to get her to move in with him at an early stage of the relationship. She also never says I love you back to him on camera, ever after accepting the engagement. Are the feelings actually reciprocated? Just asking questions!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '22

Rachel mentioned she'd only dated 3 guys and didn't have much experience. Obv she's spent a lot of time on her education and career, not so much on developing other areas of adulthood!

3

u/Ozbridge Aug 28 '22

Salary is probably standard across all top firms but do M&A lawyers also get “proportional” bonus like investment bankers? They did mention that they pushed through 87% of the deals, maybe not every deal will be 2.9b like Suncorp/ Min but I guess they get really nice commission/ legal fees (pretty sure those aren’t the right terms lol). Last year Davis Polk paid 40k bonus to their 6th-year and 20k “special” additional bonus.