On Making Partner

So my morning research today led me through an interesting sequence of steps:

1. CNN article about Bill Clinton's surgery
2. Wikipedia article about Attorney Generals
3. Wikipedia article about Bill Clinton
4. Wikipedia article about Rhodes Scholarships
5. Rhodes Trust website
6. Oxford website for available "programmes"
7. Wikipedia article on MLitt
8. UChicago Law School site
9. UCBerkeley Law School site
10. google search: "how to make partner at a law firm"

Which turned up a wealth of information.

Based on common "BigLaw" numbers citing $280K as a base salary for an 8th year associate, at which point, associates should be under consideration for partnership, non-equity partners can start around $300K, with estimates ranging up to $600-800K.  Of course, equity partners get a stake in the firm's profits, and though details are hard to come by, some sources estimate that equity partners make $1-4 million.

According to alreadybored.com, some firms in my area have a minimum of 1900 billed hours for 1st year associates.  I'm sure that the number only increases as you gain seniority, AND you have business development requirements on top of those hours.  They seriously must work 3000 hours a year, which, if you do the math, is like 10 hours/day, 6 days/week, or 12 hours/5 days.  Crazy.

And yet something about it is still appealing...am I just nuts?

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