I am a five-years’ PQE corporate lawyer within a small corporate team at a national firm based in Leeds. I’m more or less given a free rein to get on with fee earning and business development. My BD is going well: 95% of my work-stream flows from regular referrals from self-generated, long-term and portable contacts. For example, in the previous 12 months, I have generated fee income four times my salary and anticipate this rising to five in the next month or so. I should add that the majority of the fee income for the department comes from existing clients rather than referrals.
My firm, however, appears to struggle in fairly rewarding me. My last pay rise was circa 7% and although I accept that my salary is now towards the top end for the local market for someone of my PQE, such a comparision is limited given, I think, most of peers of a similar PQE do not generate equivalent fees. I receive a small bonus of 4% of all bills raised for work that I’ve generated but I’m unsure if this is an equitable reward. I’m confident that other local firms would be willing to offer a more generous bonus package but I’m not particularly inclined to leave my present firm. What should I do?
