How much should a law firm pay a corporate attorney?

There is no corporate-attorney line in the wage data we pulled — the BLS series here covers all lawyers — so you are anchoring to two datasets.

The broader one is BLS's Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for lawyers (SOC 23-1011), May 2025 release: a national median of $159,670 a year ($76.76 an hour), a 10th percentile of $78,360 and a 90th percentile of $351,600, across 754,500 employed lawyers.

Two read-with-care notes: BLS footnotes published estimates of $239,200 a year or more as "equal to or greater than" that line, so read that 90th percentile as an "about" figure rather than a precise one, and OEWS excludes the self-employed, so it says nothing about what partners or firm owners take home.

The sector cut inside that series matters for this seat.

Lawyers in the legal services industry — law firms — had a median of $157,870 in May 2025, while lawyers in management of companies and enterprises, the corporate head offices that are the closest BLS proxy for in-house seats, had a median of $223,560.

Same series, same release, so the comparison is like-for-like: in-house corporate seats are the alternative market for a corporate attorney, and at the median they pay more than law-firm seats do.

Geography moves the whole series.

Among states in May 2025, New York had the highest lawyer median at $207,860, followed by DC at $195,190 and California at $195,080; Mississippi was lowest at $91,690.

Our programmatic page holds the state-by-state corporate attorney salary data, computed from the same BLS series.

The second anchor is law-firm survey data, and it is a different dataset: first-year base salaries at reporting law offices — a sample that skews toward large firms — not all lawyers everywhere.

NALP's 2025 Associate Salary Survey put the median first-year associate base at $200,000 as of January 1, 2025, and $215,000 at firms of more than 700 lawyers.

That survey predates the latest market move: legal press reported that a market scale set by Milbank's June 2, 2026 memo, effective July 1, 2026, runs from $235,000 for the Class of 2026 and 2025 up to $455,000 for the Class of 2018, with firms including McDermott, Quinn Emanuel, Sullivan & Cromwell, Katten, Norton Rose Fulbright and Troutman Pepper Locke matching by late summer 2026.

So the working range for your area is a pair, not a single number: your state's all-lawyer median from BLS for the broad market, and the class-year figure for your firm-size tier and city from the survey and market-scale data.

You can see the candidate side of the market — titles, practice areas, posted pay — on our corporate attorney jobs page.

Read the figures against their sources: these are May 2025 medians for all lawyers (SOC 23-1011), not a corporate-attorney survey — our research found no corporate-attorney series in the BLS data we pulled, so our salary page uses the all-lawyers series as a proxy — and the market-scale figures come from legal press reporting firm memos, not from a government series. Re-check the current releases before you budget.

The first lever is firm size.

In NALP's 2025 survey, $225,000 was the most common first-year salary — reported by 32% of offices overall and 45% of offices at firms of more than 700 lawyers — while at firms of 250 or fewer lawyers, the most common first-year salary was $150,000 or less, at 44% of offices.

Starting pay is bimodal rather than average: in NALP's Class of 2025 salary curve — a different NALP dataset, covering full-time jobs across all employer types, not only law firms — salaries of $60,000 to $100,000 made up 50.0% of the 22,715 full-time salaries reported, and $225,000 accounted for another 21.5%.

NALP also cautions that the unadjusted mean starting salary overstates the true average by about 5.5%, because large-firm salaries are more completely reported — so skip the "average associate salary" headlines and price against your own firm-size tier instead.

Experience is priced by class year on the market scale.

The scale legal press reported in 2026 runs from $235,000 for the Class of 2026 and 2025 to $455,000 for the Class of 2018, and the 2026 raise added $10,000 for the first four class years and $20,000 for fifth- through eighth-years over the prior $225,000-to-$435,000 scale.

Firms deviate from it in both directions — Katten's matched scale topped out at $440,000, and Susman Godfrey set first-years at $240,000 — so treat the scale as a reference point, not a uniform.

If you are hiring a fourth-year corporate attorney, the relevant figure is that fourth-year step, not the first-year number.

City is the third lever.

Median first-year salaries reached $225,000 in six markets in NALP's 2025 survey: Austin, Boston, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and the Washington, DC area.

Outside NALP's 19 major-market cities, medians ran $181,900 in the West, $170,000 in the Northeast and $160,000 in the South and Midwest.

Practice area is the lever these sources do not price: the surveys we read price associate pay by class year, firm size and city, and we found no sourced premium for corporate work over other associate work in them.

Budget by level and market first, then compete on structure — which is the next section.

If you have not settled the level yet, our guide to how to hire a corporate attorney covers the seat before the salary.

The structure the survey and press data document at market firms is a base salary set by class year plus a year-end bonus — at some firms tied to hours — and the base is the figure those sources price directly.

In the 2026 market-firm announcements, legal press reported that the scale is commonly tied to a 1,900- or 2,000-hour billable expectation — Norton Rose Fulbright at 1,900, McDermott and Quinn Emanuel at 2,000, with no hour expectation listed in Milbank's own memo.

Our research found no sourced average billable-hours figure across firms, so the only expectation worth stating is your firm's own — put the number in the posting and the offer rather than leaving the candidate to assume.

The bonus figures also come from press reports of firm memos.

The ABA Journal reported that Cravath's 2025 year-end bonuses ran $15,000 to $115,000 by class year, plus special bonuses of $6,000 to $25,000.

Some firms tie the bonus to hours — the same report said Cadwalader paid 120% of the year-end bonus to associates with at least 2,200 billable hours in 2025.

The 2026 year-end amounts had not been announced as of the sources this page draws on (October 2, 2026), so the season a candidate quotes you is likely the 2025 one.

A small firm cannot always carry that structure, and the small-firm economics show why.

Clio's 2025 Legal Trends Report — drawn from Clio users, mostly small firms, so do not apply it to BigLaw — puts average utilization at 38%, meaning about 3 of 8 hours in a workday are billable, with realization at 88% and collection at 93%.

At those rates revenue depends on what the firm actually collects, so the structure the math supports is a base you can sustain through a slow quarter plus a bonus tied to firm results.

If that puts your number under the market scale, say so plainly and compete on hours, predictability and direct client contact — the things a 2,000-hour shop structurally cannot offer.

On the wage-hour side, structure is freer for a licensed attorney than for most roles.

Under federal law (29 CFR 541.304), a lawyer who holds a valid license to practice law and is actually engaged in the practice of law is an exempt professional, and the federal salary-level and salary-basis requirements — a $684-a-week standard level as of October 2026 — do not apply to that lawyer.

California is the exception: exempt status there also requires a salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work, which works out to $70,304 a year ($1,352 a week) at the 2026 rate.

Washington and Colorado, matching federal law, exempt practising lawyers on their duties alone, without a minimum salary.

Employer information, not legal advice: exemption turns on duties and salary, not job titles, and state rules differ. Confirm the treatment of your structure with employment counsel, and see our guide to overtime rules for the full picture.

No source in our research ranks which perks corporate attorney candidates value most, so we will not invent a ranking.

What the sources do document is the shape of the packages these candidates come from, and the states that now require you to describe your own package in the posting.

The shape of a market package, from the figures above: a class-year base, a year-end bonus — the ABA Journal reported $15,000 to $115,000 at Cravath for 2025 — special bonuses on top, and at some shops a multiplier for high hours, such as Cadwalader's reported 120% at 2,200-plus billable hours.

One more documented line item: 73% of law offices in NALP's 2025 survey offered judicial clerkship bonuses, with amounts varying by clerkship type — the line to have ready if your candidate is finishing a clerkship.

If your firm runs no bonus at all, that is a defensible position, but make it explicit early and pair it with the trade — fewer hours, more direct client contact, no 2,000-hour meter — so the package is read as a deliberate structure rather than discovered at signing.

The other half is disclosure: in five of the states we verified, the benefits package is part of what the posting itself must describe.

Washington employers with 15 or more employees must include the wage scale or salary range plus a general description of benefits and other compensation, in effect since January 1, 2023.

Illinois employers with 15 or more employees must include pay scale and benefits in the posting.

Minnesota employers with 30 or more must list the starting salary range and a general description of benefits, and ranges may not be open-ended.

Colorado requires compensation and benefits in all internal and public postings.

Connecticut requires the wage or wage range plus a general description of benefits in every posting from October 1, 2026.

In those states the package decision has to be made before the ad is written, not at offer stage.

What a small firm can put together — health coverage, flexibility, remote days, a shorter hours expectation — is its own subject, covered in our guide to benefits small firms offer.

The point for this page is sequencing: candidates from market firms will compare your whole package against the structure above, and those five states will make you publish its outline in the ad anyway.

The offer conversation is regulated before it starts: in the states our research verified, you cannot anchor to the candidate's current pay.

California bars every employer — any size — from seeking an applicant's salary history, including compensation and benefits, orally or in writing, personally or through an agent, and from relying on it in deciding whether to hire or what to pay.

New York bars relying on an applicant's wage or salary history and requesting it as a condition of being interviewed, considered, hired or promoted, or seeking it from a current or former employer.

Illinois makes it unlawful to screen applicants by salary history, to request it as a condition of an interview or offer, or to seek it from a current or former employer.

Massachusetts bars seeking a prospective employee's wage or salary history from the candidate or a current or former employer, allowing confirmation only after voluntary disclosure or after an offer with compensation has been made.

Those four statutes are the ones we read in full; Connecticut, Virginia and Nevada restrict salary-history inquiries as well, and many cities and other states have their own rules.

That is deliberately not a complete list or count — we can only vouch for the statutes we verified, so confirm the law where your candidate works, not just where your firm sits.

What you can ask about is expectations.

California's law expressly allows an employer to ask an applicant's salary expectation for the position, and to consider salary history the applicant volunteers without prompting.

New York allows confirming prior pay only at one moment: after an offer with compensation is made, if the applicant responds by citing prior wage or salary information to support a higher number.

The workable sequence follows from that — state your range, ask their expectation, and negotiate on this role's market: class year, city, firm size.

The range itself is regulated at the posting stage, and the posting statutes we verified read as follows.

California employers with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale in the posting and give it to any third party that posts for them; the pay scale is a good-faith estimate of the salary or hourly range the employer reasonably expects to pay on hire, penalties run $100 to $10,000 per violation, and an employer of any size must provide the pay scale for a position on reasonable request.

New York State requires compensation ranges in postings at four or more employees, and New York City has required a good-faith pay range in advertisements for NYC-performed work since November 1, 2022.

Colorado requires compensation and benefits in all internal and public postings.

Minnesota applies at 30 or more employees, Massachusetts at 25 or more since October 29, 2025, Washington and Illinois at 15 or more, Connecticut from October 1, 2026, and Virginia requires the wage, salary or range in each public and internal posting — with a ban on seeking salary history attached.

Nevada works differently: the employer gives the wage or salary range to an applicant who has completed an interview rather than in the posting.

Signing bonuses are the other regulated piece.

In California, for contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2026, a term requiring a worker to pay a penalty, fee or cost — including a quit fee or a replacement hire fee — if employment ends is unlawful, subject to an exception a signing-bonus clause can fit: repayment must sit in a separate agreement, the worker must be told they may consult a lawyer and get at least five business days, repayment must be interest-free and prorated over a retention period of no more than two years, the worker must have the option to defer the bonus to the end of that period instead, and repayment can apply only on a voluntary quit or a firing for misconduct.

A worker who prevails on a prohibited term can recover actual damages or $5,000 per worker, whichever is greater, plus injunctive relief and attorney's fees.

Clawback rules outside California were not part of our research — do not assume a clause is enforceable or banned elsewhere; run it past employment counsel first.

None of that changes the economics of winning.

Anchor to the class-year market for the level you are hiring, make every part of the package explicit — base, bonus basis, hours expectation, benefits — and keep the published range a good-faith estimate you can actually defend at signing.

Review on the market's calendar, not on an anniversary you invent.

The anchor datasets update on their own schedules: BLS's latest OEWS release is May 2025, NALP's associate survey reported first-year salaries as of January 1, 2025, and, as legal press reported, the market scale moved when Milbank sent its June 2, 2026 memo, effective July 1, 2026, adding $10,000 for the first four class years and $20,000 for fifth- through eighth-years over the prior $225,000-to-$435,000 scale.

The move was episodic rather than annual: the ABA Journal reported in November 2025 that Cravath's base salaries would stay the same in 2026, months before the market scale moved.

Bonus season is its own cycle — the 2026 year-end amounts had not been announced as of the sources this page draws on (October 2, 2026).

Three practical rules fall out of that.

First, when a market-scale memo makes legal press, re-check your ranges within weeks if you hire where candidates see those numbers — that is when your posted range goes stale against what laterals are being offered.

Second, re-run the benchmark against your own data at least once a year; our guide to benchmarking law firm pay covers the method, and our salary page holds the latest BLS figures by state.

Third, treat any published range as a living number: California defines the pay scale as a good-faith estimate of what you reasonably expect to pay on hire, so a range you no longer mean to honor is a compliance problem, not just a retention one.

We found no sourced rule for how often to raise pay or by how much — no primary source in our research states a standard increase percentage, so treat any "market increase" figure you are quoted as a negotiating position.

What the record does show is cadence: base scales move when one market firm moves and others match, bonuses are decided in their own season, and the government series refresh on theirs.

Put a review on all three.

Employer information, not legal advice. The pay figures here are BLS OEWS May 2025 and NALP 2025 survey data as our sources state them, and the salary-history, pay-transparency and bonus-repayment rules described are state-specific and change; confirm current requirements with the state labor agency for each state you hire in, and with employment counsel, before you finalize a posting or an offer.