Earning potential - non-lawyers at big law firms?

[chia]

Since there are so many lawyers on here, I thought this might be a good place to ask...

I am not a lawyer or a paralegal, and don't have any formal legal training. But, in my current position, I work with a lot of lawyers (a lot of very senior-level Gov't attys) and insight into some Federal government process and policy type stuff (not really related to "lobbying" but certain types of Federal filings and sort-of lobbying-type stuff)

One of my favorite attorneys is leaving at the end of the year to go to a Big Law firm. When she told me she was going, we talked about keeping in touch, and sort of joked about me jumping over to the private sector at some point (this person has a lot of connections, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to put a little feeler out...).

I'm not going anywhere for a while - especially with a baby on the way. But, this conversation got me thinking about what types of opportunities might be out there a few years from now.

Out of curiosity, what types of jobs exist at big law firms for non-lawyers? Not secretaries, but subject matter expert/professional type people. And, how much $$$ do these people typically make? (I'm sure it totally depends.) And, if these jobs do exist, are they sucky second-class citizens because they're non-lawyers?

[Deleted]

It depends on what they do.

Non-lawyer jobs:

Paralegal
Secretary
Managing clerk and assistants
All sorts of HR and benefits jobs, on both the attorney and non-attorney sides
Recruitment
Marketing/PR
Event planner
Attorney Development
Pro bono coordinator
Paralegal coordinator
Legal librarian
CLE coordinador
Accounting people
IT
Litigation support (essentially IT for litigation databases)
Document production (work on formatting documents and proofreading)
Mail room
Reproduction
Reception

And many, many more.

Salaries can range from very low (mailroom guys) to almost as much or as much as an attorney (though those jobs often went to former associates, in my experience -- maybe not at other firms)

[h]

We have some lobbyists and public affairs experts who are not lawyers. I have no idea what they make, but I get the impression that the senior policy people are compensated similar to senior associates. Non-lawyers can't be partners in a law firm, so they don't get any profit sharing.

[thedutchgirl]

Dec 10, 2012 20:43:55 GMT -5 h said:

We have some lobbyists and public affairs experts who are not lawyers. I have no idea what they make, but I get the impression that the senior policy people are compensated similar to senior associates. Non-lawyers can't be partners in a law firm, so they don't get any profit sharing.

We have this too, although my firm has a separate consulting company set up. I am not sure the partnership rules for that arm and whether partnership is allowed, but there are a fair amount of government relations people.

[chia]

Dec 10, 2012 20:43:55 GMT -5 h said:

We have some lobbyists and public affairs experts who are not lawyers. I have no idea what they make, but I get the impression that the senior policy people are compensated similar to senior associates. Non-lawyers can't be partners in a law firm, so they don't get any profit sharing.

Thanks... I definitely don't qualify for the jobs v listed.

There's one guy I interact with every so often at a big firm, and I know he's not a lawyer. He works for the law firm, but is also a Director at a trade association. I'm assuming that association hires the firm for their legal representation? I'm not sure what the exact relationship is, but he's a "Senior Analyst" according to the firm's website.

I'm kind of curious about whether or not this is a "typical" type of job, and if so, whether or not there's any opportunity to make $$$$. LOL. Like, more than the $112K I make now. I suppose it may be a little different at some of the firms in D.C. - because of the Federal lobbyist angle.

[h]

My best guess would be that our non-lawyer lobbyists and policy experts are making $150k-$250k in most cases. Probably substantially more for the top people.

[chia]

Dec 10, 2012 20:59:49 GMT -5 h said:

My best guess would be that our non-lawyer lobbyists and policy experts are making $150k-$250k in most cases. Probably substantially more for the top people.

Excellent.

Are you in D.C., or somewhere else? I can't remember...

[h]

I am in TX. But we have a DC office, which is where most of our policy people are.