I've been at my new job for about 4 months now. It feels good to finally have health insurance! The shitlaw I worked for before did not offer such benefit. :-(I still have some credit card debt but slowly paying it off. I had to incur some big expense for my move from NY-- new apartment, new car (lease), new furniture. I should be debt free by December or sooner. Then again, my family might be coming over for a visit, which would mean additional expense...we'll see how it goes.
My colleagues are overall a nice bunch. But it's a small and young office so I am not sure how much I would get in terms of mentorship and guidance. The law firm HQ is somewhere on the west coast with about three or so other offices in other states. The "billing/billable" culture is unsaid, but well-enforced. Since I just started, I might be slightly under the required 3x my salary minimum. I think I should hustle to get overflow work of my colleagues which I can bill. Anyway, I am thinking that once I get my license (yes, getting admission in NY is a sloooow process!), perhaps I can get additional client accounts which should add to my monthly billing. The division of work at the office is odd or may be I am not just used to sharing work. People have their own corporate accounts, which means they handle all work from those companies. Since I am a newbie, I don't have big accounts. I only have three small corporate accounts at the moment; and I think clients are wary that I am not a full-fledged lawyer. I also don't talk "legalese" to clients since as a Law Clerk, I am not supposed to. I don't handle client consultations on my own, and even for those small corporate accounts that I have, teleconferences have to be coursed through an attorney. I, myself am strict about this and tell my supervising attorney that I would not want to even get close to unauthorized practice of law. So unless client questions are factual, I don't give any information. Even emails which border on giving legal advice, I send to my supervising attorney for approval.
Since I am still in shitlaw, I still get shitlaw pay. I probably am the lowest paid legal staff in the office! The other day while being asked by a colleague if I can handle some corporate filing, he also asked about my billing rate. It occurred to me after the fact that now he probably has reached some conclusion as to my worth in the office. I know that even if we started at the firm at about the same time, he (licensed in 2009) is billing about $220-$250 per hour. As a Law Clerk, I bill slightly below $200. I don't know what the average rates are, but I must tell you that moving out of NY, I am stunned by how cheap we charge for our services. Here's an example:
NYC solo/small shop: an H-1B petition costs $1750-$2500.
Outside NYC (but commutable): an H-1B petition costs $700-$900.
Then again, where I'm at now, it's a volume practice. It's just a lot of paper pushing and file organizing. Almost everything is already in template format, I can't be sure how much original thought I've put out there since I joined.
Anyway, back to billing rates. Per my knowledge, here are our rates:
Law Clerk: slightly less than $200
Supervising Lawyer (licensed 2009): $240
Lawyer (licensed 2006): $225
Lawyer (licensed 2009): $225-250
Lawyer (licensed 2010): $225
I don't know if my billing rate would increase once I get my license. Even if it did, I probably won't get a salary increase. The position I interviewed for did not require a JD, moreso a license. They did not even know I took the bar. The day after my start date, I decided to let them know I passed the bar since I needed an employment certificate. At any rate, the firm was kind enough to pay my attorney registration fee.
I don't know where I am taking my legal career, but I am happy to have a job and have friendly colleagues.
