Three-partner firm Spice Route Legal, which had been founded in 2016 by former K Law partner Praveen Raju, has revealed its remuneration for associates from 0 to 7 years of post-qualification experience (PQE).
The pay levels are (including an assumption that each scale equates to a level of PQE):
| Presumed PQE | Annual compensation, incl. bonus, in Rs lakh | Y-o-y percentage increase | |
| Associate 1 | 0 | 9.72 | - |
| Associate 2 | 1 | 16.2 | 67 |
| Associate 3 | 2 | 21.06 | 30 |
| Associate 4 | 3 | 25.92 | 23 |
| Senior Associate 1 | 4 | 36 | 39 |
| Senior Associate 2 | 5 | 39.6 | 10 |
| Senior Associate 3 | 6 | 45 | 14 |
| Senior Associate 4 | 7 | 50.4 | 12 |
According to the firm’s LinkedIn post of yesterday, which was also inviting job applications from lawyers, the firm said: “We thought we would do our bit for pay transparency, and so - below is our revised salary scales for 2021.”
According to the graphic with the “compensation scales”, the figures are “inclusive of annual bonus”, which we would assume means that this is the maximum possible compensation paid out, if a fee-earner manages to get 100% of the bonus.
We have reached out for comment to Raju about whether the bonus amounts were fixed or variable and what the previous pay scales were but he declined to comment.
Update 10 December 2020: Partner Mathew Chacko told Bar & Bench today that there had been no significant increase in its pay:
It isn’t a major revision in the pay structure, it is an annual revision. It was a year in which we expected things to go south, but we did quite well, and we decided to share the rewards with lawyers at the firm.
We are a small firm with around 30-odd lawyers and we’ve only been operational for about four years. Whatever rate we have been going at in the past few years, we have gone at during this year, so there has been no real difference.
According to its website,
Nevertheless, it is an interesting look inside fee-earner pay structures and the first time an Indian law firm has revealed those.
At many international law firms, the base salary for at least the first few years is known and disclosed internally, with the bonus element acting to differentiate performance.
At most Indian law firms, however, the base pay bands for even associates after the first year of PQE begin diverging widely, and more so with increasing levels of seniority.
We have recently reported that Nishith Desai had raised its fresher pay to Rs 16.2 lakh plus a fixed bonus of Rs 1.2 lakh generally paid out 18 months after joining for first year’s:
[In 2015], Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) had announced a revolutionary base pay without any bonus component of Rs 15 to Rs 16 lakh per year (though in some cases the firm strangely ended up paying freshers less than promised, as we had reported in 2017).
SAM had followed Khaitan & Co hiking its base pay to Rs 14.4 lakh (excluding up to Rs 1.8 lakh of bonus).
Trilegal had pushed up to Rs 13 lakh plus up to Rs 2.2 lakh of bonuses, while Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai (as it was back in April 2015, was on a base of Rs 12 lakh and a maximum bonus of Rs 3 lakh).
Hat-tip to a reader for pointing us to this.
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Let's concentrate on better firms and wish Algo thr best rather than firms that have themselves become trollish on LI. That's the lowest one can sink. Also, considering the regular departures at junior levels, and the constant trolling on LI, this is definitely happening from senior levels or management. LI needs to ensure that such trolls don't spread misinformation to gullible others. Mere speaking with a recruiter is enough to know that they don't even offer 30L to a senior SA.
Having said that, this also (I am laughing inside - that's life) makes the people at Vertices extremely hard working and experienced - and helps get the best out of the year spent there. I honestly feel that my current work load in the tier 1 firm I work with is laughable.
P.s. it's true. Ex-vertices people have been poached to AZB, SAM, CAM, JSA, Khaitan etc. A LinkedIn crawl will tell you that - also the reason I joined the firm. Perfect training ground and also perfect ground to move up the ladder if you haven't had the best law school or the best resume. Poaching works well too - people want to escape the pressure induced work atmosphere, and recruiters usually find the talent for tier-1 as each person had handled deals closely - explaining the high attrition.
(P.S. been some time since I exited the firm. Can't speak on the current environment).
(1) while they have mentioned the pay inclusive of the bonus, what's the break-up between the fixed and the bonus component? Is the break up consistent across the board (unlikely) or does it vary? It's all well and dandy to say, that one can get X in paper, but what does one get in hand?
(2) what are the ranges of the percentage of bonus actually provided to the retainers? It's great to say that the annual pay is X per year, but what portion of the variable/bonus component is generally given (for performers at the median level of performers and top-level performers)?
Without answers to these questions, the figures, while helpful on some level may not be nearly as meaningful as they can be. That the firm representatives declined to comment on these aspects is telling (though completely understandable).
One would hope that the fact of (relatively) smaller firms such as NDA and SRL would induce some of the bigger players (who have made their lawyers slog much harder during the pandemic) give the much needed/deserved hikes, or risk bleeding talent.
Trainees= A0 in any other firm..
The salaries are inflated.
And are you saying a 2017 grad is making 36 Lac? If yes, we have nothing to worry about.
The dangling carrot was that last year all the trainees were absorbed. But again, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
A man can only hope.
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