Successfully Negotiate Your In-House Lawyer Salary and Job Offer

When you’re in the process of interviewing for an in-house counsel position, you’re laser-focused on landing the job offer. As you should be!

That’s not the final goal, though.

Just as in-house counsel job interviews are very different from law firms’, the negotiation of in-house job offers also varies from many law firms’.

Keep reading to learn how you can negotiate your in-house counsel compensation–even if you don’t yet have a job offer!

If you’d rather watch or listen, you can view the video “Negotiate Your In-House Lawyer Salary and Job Offer” by clicking here.

BEFORE NEGOTIATING IN-HOUSE COUNSEL COMPENSATION, CALCULATE YOUR COSTS

After the initial excitement of landing a job offer, your next thoughts usually turn to compensation—in particular, salary.

Salary seems like a shortcut for assessing the value of a job offer, but in isolation a salary number can be misleading.

Even if the salary offered is higher than your current salary, you’ll need to do a deeper analysis to figure out how far that salary will take you.

Here are some examples of costs you may need to consider:

• Commuting costs (gas, parking, tolls, mental anguish from fighting traffic)
• Insurance/health care benefits
• 401(k) match
• Relocation costs
• Cost of living (housing, food, wage taxes)
• Foregoing upcoming bonus or raise
• New wardrobe
• Lack of remote work options

Some of these factors will have a straight-forward monetary value, while others will be harder to quantify but equally important in your cost analysis.

NEGOTIATE MORE THAN JUST YOUR IN-HOUSE ATTORNEY SALARY

For better or for worse, salary isn’t everything when it comes to compensation.

So while your salary is often on the table when it comes to in-house counsel job offers, it’s far from the only compensation that’s negotiable.

MONETARY CONSIDERATIONS

When it comes to the money, you’ve got more than just salary to look to:

• Bonuses
• Projected salary increases
• Opportunities for advancement (and pay raises/larger bonuses)
• Health care benefits
• Profit-sharing
• 401(k) match
• Stock options

Some employers will be upfront with this type of compensation in your initial job offer, but be sure to ask about these elements if they’re not included in your offer letter.

NON-MONETARY CONSIDERATIONS

While some of these considerations can have a monetary impact, I like to think of them as quality of life factors.

Just because they may not be easily quantifiable doesn’t mean you can’t ask for them:

• Reduced work schedule
• Remote work options
• Delineate exactly what falls under your job description
• Paid time off
• Family leave?
• Parental leave
• Sick leave
• Fitness membership

Now, you likely won’t be negotiating ALL of these items. And even if you were to try you would need to give concessions on at least some things.

So how do you determine what to negotiate and what to accept?

KNOW YOUR NON-NEGOTIABLES WHEN DETERMINING YOUR IN-HOUSE LAWYER SALARY

Before you even have a job offer to consider, you need to determine what your non-negotiables are.

You’ll start by looking at which parts of the job offer are out of alignment with your core values.

For example, if the employer makes it very clear that you’re expected to work seven days a week and always be on call, that could be a big problem if you have a core value of spending quality time with your family.

The 24/7 availability for someone with that core value could very well be a higher priority for negotiation than the base salary or other monetary factors.

When you’re certain of your values before heading into a job negotiation, you know which elements to target and at what point you’ll need to walk away (and have zero regrets if you do).

You’ll also have an understanding of which elements of the job offer you can offer as concessions when negotiating for your highest priority.

YOU NEED TO COUNTER-OFFER TO GET THE BEST IN-HOUSE COUNSEL COMPENSATION

When they present you with the offer, thank them, express your continued interest in the position, and then ask for time to consider the offer.

Yes, even if it’s better than you expected!

You want to request extra time for two reasons:

1. In your excitement upon receiving the offer, you may overlook important details and accept too hastily.
2. You want your counter-offer to be in writing.

You can then reference your non-negotiables alongside the overall compensation they’re offering to craft a counter-offer that makes sense for you, your values, and your goals

SUCCESSFULLY NEGOTIATE YOUR IN-HOUSE ATTORNEY SALARY WITH THE HELP OF A LAWYER COACH

A lot goes into an in-house interview process, and you don’t want to lose steam when it comes time to negotiate the job offer.

By following the strategies laid out above, you’ll be well on your way to negotiating the best possible in-house counsel compensation package for yourself.

If you want the help of a seasoned coach who’s helped hundreds of lawyers learn how to negotiate their lawyer job offers, I can help!

Feel free to send me a DM if you want to find out how we can work together to negotiate your in-house counsel job offer—having a current offer isn’t required in order to prepare your counter-offer strategy!

Annie

P.S. You can access the original article and accompanying video at https://thejdnation.com/blog/in-house-lawyer-salary.