Salary Guide

Salary guides are a useful starting point, but they only show one dimension of a lawyer's value. In the first few years after admission, lawyers progress in something close to lock-step, and the published bands are a fair guide. From around the three-to-four year mark, that changes.

Lawyers start to stand apart through the practice area they've chosen, how deep their technical skills go, how well they manage client relationships, how well they understand their clients' industries, and their ability to win new work.

At Senior Associate level and above, mentoring and leadership come into it too. Lawyers who came to law from another career, such as engineering, health, education or accounting, bring something extra again. None of this fits neatly into a data table. So when a lawyer asks us "how much should I be earning?", our answer is, and always will be, "it depends."

Base salary is also only part of the overall offer. Practice area is often the biggest single factor in where someone sits within their band, because supply and demand in specialisations like projects and construction, resources, and banking and finance can move a number a long way. Bonus and incentive structures, superannuation, and for in-house roles, short-term and long-term incentives can change total remuneration a great deal. So can the type of employer: a top-tier firm, a mid-tier or boutique practice, an ASX-listed company or a not-for-profit will each value the same role differently. Non-cash benefits matter more and more as well. Parental leave, extra or purchased annual leave, flexible and hybrid working, professional development allowances and wellbeing support should all be given a real value when comparing roles, not treated as extras.

That's why we treat our salary data as the start of a conversation, not the conclusion.

Before we talk about pay with any lawyer, we ask about what they've contributed beyond their billable hours. That includes business development and pitches won, articles and presentations, committee work, mentoring junior lawyers, looking after client relationships, further study, and helping build their firm's culture and brand. Those answers explain why one lawyer sits at the lower end of a band and another at the top far more often than published data does.

Whether you're weighing up your next move or setting remuneration for your team, we'd welcome a confidential conversation about what the numbers mean for you.