How to negotiate your salary

The key to any salary negotiation for lawyers is preparation and presentation, writes Jason Elias.

Jason Elias • 17 August 2020 • Big Law

While many lawyers are trained in the art of negotiating for their clients, they tend to be quite coy about discussing fees or salaries. Some joke that the quickest way to get us lawyers to go quiet is to ask about money.

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Here are some tools to help with that difficult conversations around salary:

Do your research so that you know what is realistic for any given role. There are numerous legal salary surveys.
Always remember that it is a collaboration – not a fight. You need to work with these people so keep things professional.
Speak with a recruiter about what is realistic. Recruiters are in the market day in and day out so know what salaries are on offer.
Hold off discussing money until they’ve made a decision to hire you. Potential employers will always be looking to lock you down to a specific range early, and you will have more leverage when they’ve decided that you are the person that they are most interested in.
Quantify your value – know the specifics around your billable hours, charge rates, along with major new clients that you might have won, or initiatives that might have saved your firm significant amounts.
Good candidates are still in demand – without sounding conceited, let them know if you have other opportunities. This helps the company bring their best offer to the table.
Negotiate outside of just salary – many companies might have some limitations around salary banding, but might be able to help with additional flexibility, allowances, position title, allowances, additional annual leave, etc.
Work with a recruiter – an experienced recruiter as an intermediary can really help you succeed here. They can have more difficult conversations tactfully on your behalf. It makes things cleaner having an independent third party (who often is incentivised to secure the best possible salary).
Don’t haggle for the sake of it. I have seen too many people miss out on dream jobs for trivial amounts of a few dollars a day, particularly taking out tax and superannuation.

Jason Elias is the director of Elias Recruitment.

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