Compensation. Remuneration. Base-and-bonus. Whatever term a recruiting team chooses, if they ask a lateral partner candidate about current earnings, they’re going to get pushback. Compensation is a touchy, personal subject. It’s also a topic that most partners would prefer to avoid, because, well, it’s complicated.
In New York, it’s been illegal to ask about a job applicant’s salary history since October 2017. More than two years later, however, when it comes to questioning lateral partner candidates, we find that about half of AmLaw firms choose to ask anyway. These firms (including some that are structured as corporations and pay partners as employees with a W-2), maintain that because the candidate seeks to join as a shareholder or partner, the rule banning compensation questions does not apply. This is a position that many employment discrimination experts contend is wrong. Meanwhile, the other half of firms opt to ask partner candidates about their earnings “expectations.” That’s an artful dodge, but the “expectations” question nonetheless triggers candidates’ anxieties by requiring a prospective candidate to self-assess—in a vacuum—their overall value to a new firm or else disclose their current compensation as an easy way out.
