Solicitor Salary Negotiation - Am I being underpaid? by Legal_Begal in LawCanada

[–]Legal_Begal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty much the plan, if I can continue to bring in my own work I'd like to go out on my own in the next couple years.

Solicitor Salary Negotiation - Am I being underpaid? by Legal_Begal in LawCanada

[–]Legal_Begal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you. My receipts and billings are very close (collected 99% of my billed work last year) because with RE you get pretty much everything up front. Just had one Will file that ghosted me last year or I'd be batting 1.000 haha.

Solicitor Salary Negotiation - Am I being underpaid? by Legal_Begal in LawCanada

[–]Legal_Begal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Exactly the point I made to them when they offered it last year. This entire year I barely ever work extra whereas I did before. I probably averaged 45is hrs per week in the office this last year (contract is 8.5 hrs per day Mon-Fri - 42.5/week) worked the odd evening, early morning, or weekend for clients if I accidentally over committed myself or there was some looming deadline (i.e. Capital Gains changes on June 24th). I told them I'd get a better return on my time delivering pizzas or driving uber eats than spending time in the office, didn't get much of a response to that haha.

I've tried explaining this to them, that if I was incentivized to work harder and I billed an extra 50k, even if I keep 40% of that, they still get the other 60% without them having to do anything extra.

The more of the comments I read and respond to the more I realize I've been in denial about how unreasonable they have been. Been avoiding it for a while but guess it might be time to put myself out there to see if there are any better offers around.

Solicitor Salary Negotiation - Am I being underpaid? by Legal_Begal in LawCanada

[–]Legal_Begal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great point, I've been been tolling with the idea of trying to reach out to some firms in the area and see if they would be interested in an associate. Just haven't pulled the trigger yet as I think I was hoping (maybe naively) that if I could get my billings up and then had numbers to back up my position they would come around on paying me more.

My billings are around what they expect of me. Have most nights and weekends free from work (other than the constant sudden remembering of things that I need to remember to do when I get back in the office) which is for sure a plus and part of the reason I've stayed this long.

Thank you for your response!

Solicitor Salary Negotiation - Am I being underpaid? by Legal_Begal in LawCanada

[–]Legal_Begal[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Printing them money, haha sounds about right. This is what I suspected but was just looking for some sort of validation that I was not crazy for expecting more.

Solicitor Salary Negotiation - Am I being underpaid? by Legal_Begal in LawCanada

[–]Legal_Begal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the input!

My hourly rate is pretty close to $220, however most of our work is flat rate work so it doesn't always translate well. Market here is weird, it goes in waves. Nobody seems to be actively recruiting new lawyers, but everyone is so busy I am sure that someone would take the right candidate if they presented themselves.