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This is also assuming that u utilise all (or most) tax deduction/ exemptions possible such as 80C, HRA, etc.
Some amount gets deposited to EPF (which builds up a nice corpus over time) and gratuity (which may or may not be paid to you if you leave before 5 years). Also imp to check policies about leave encashment while leaving, leave carryover, mandatory working hours, etc.
Cognisant that itβs not possible to get to know everything if a fresher, but best to be aware of.
Dr. Reddy: around 12 LPA CTC
Axis Bank Mumbai: 20LPA CTC
ICICI Bank: 18-20 LPA CTC
Max Estates;
H&M;
Pacific Developers;
Reliance Retail (they may lowball you too);
Subway;
In in-house what you negotiate is what you get. Of course if you are a great lawyer and a Tier 1 grad and T1 law firm you will get a good kickstart if not you will start at much below. An inhouse lawyer at say 3 or 4 years PQE may be earning as little as 40 or 50 k to as high as 1 lakh. The range becomes even more miserable at say 8 years PQE. It may range from 15 lakhs to 50 lakhs per annum (ball park, of course there are outliers) depending on what background you are from and what you bring to the company and which sector you are working on. This sheer range makes it difficult to have any set data. The typical in house team is so small that it makes no sense to compile a company wise list of salaries, something which is much easier to do when you are just compiling a Big 7 law firm list.
If you are starting in-house as a Lateral hire in the 0-1 PQE range, do not expect more than 50k in-hand salary.
You can ask me companies and I will try to provide a very rough range of salaries but please provide the designation also.
1. The Big 4
2. Automotive companies-say a maruti
3. Adani
4. WITCH companies
5. Non Banking companies which have decent pay at entry level (any which you may be aware of)
Tx
2. German companies are better at paying but since those opportunities are practically non-existent, I donβt even have a ballpark figure to give. Maruti on the other hand offers somewhere around 35k to 45k in hand.
3. Adani - depends on the vertical. If you are in land acquisition/title verification or HR compliance then itβs somewhere around 35-40k in hand. If you are in HO and doing gen corp then that is pushed to 60-70k.
4. I donβt really know what are WITCH companies. Sorry.
5.Investment firms donβt really hire law graduates unless you have CFA or CA cleared at some level. Plus they like someone with an engineering and science background. Insurance companies pay around 35-40k in hand provided if you are in the claims department. Lower this if you are in the branch offices. If you are in gen corp team at HO you can expect around 50k.
Hope this helps.
Morgan Stanley Derivatives - 15L (4 PQE)
HP - 15L (3 PQE)
Amazon - 42L (3 PQE)
Google - 80L (6 PQE)
Crypto Industry - 25L (4 PQE)
Fintech (Groww, Zerodha, Razorpay etc.) - 30L (4 PQE)
Funds - 20L (4 PQE)
Amazon 3PQE is a joke.
Starting level as Amazon Legal Team is Associate Corporate Counsel where they expect people to have 5 to 7 PQE.
Usually the opportunities which are posted online are also floated internally as βInternal job postingsβ and that is a much quicker way of drawing an interview.
Hope this helps!
IT Companies
For example - A Google L4 corp lawyer can earn anywhere around 80 lakhs (including stock grants). This post requires 6 years PQE
Coming to startups - Partner level PQE (10+) people usually head the department or are one down. If they head the department (GC or head of legal) then easily expect 1 CR +. For better companies, GC earnings can cross 5 CRs as well (check out Swiggy, zomato etc. through their DRHP filings)
Tech startups pay the most. And you can work and negotiate non stop. If you do actually work and make yourself indispensible then sky is the limit. I am constantly offered 40-50% hikes by companies ( I have 4 years PQE, and currently earning the same as A3 Tier 1)
The best thing. No drama, good work life balance and you actually step outside the mundane law profiles and learn everything like business, marketing, HR, strategy, product designs and implementations etc. That is what keeps us going. Yes we also do doc reviews and redlining as part of our BAU but advisory work is where you can shine.
Not taking any shots and strictly my personal opinion but I regularly engage tier 1 law firms for legal opinions etc. Trust me when I say that a decent intellectual in House counsel always outshines a similarly experienced law firm associate. I have seen that time and again and that's why I have stayed away from law firms.
Per hour we are paid more. After 10-12 years, the pay disparity is almost negligible. You can always grab the chance to be on the ground floor of a start up or a pre ipo company and get retirement grade stock options (My previous GC cashed in around 90 crores after the IPO).