We're accepting the meh lawyer salary - but what else to negotiate?

Wow, I think many people are about to chime in and say be grateful for the job. Maybe in time ask for more perks but right now your SO is very lucky to get a job in his/her chosen field. This. I own and run a small office, and the salary is low because revenues are low. Asking for additional paid vacation time is basically asking for a raise in reverse. Sure, he can ask, but be prepared for the partners to be annoyed by his request. And the "cut of new business generated," if offered, should be in return for a lower salary than he's been offered ... since that "new business" is what's going to be paying his salary. In an economy when many HIGHER TIER law grads are unemployed, he should be very grateful to have an offer.

"Good talent" is not at all hard to find, when the talent is entry level lawyers in NYC. "Dime a dozen" doesn't even begin to describe it. You are unbelievably lucky that he has gotten this offer with the credentials you describe. He should make his first priority showing his appreciation and adding value, not trying to nickel and dime the people who have built the business.

I would suggest *not* asking for a cut of any business she generates, simply because that is contrary to the very entrenched way of doing business in the profession. Otherwise, if she can get the firm to cover: Licensing/Bar/ARDC dues, CLE costs and memberships in bar associations, that would be a really nice perk for someone early in her career.

I totally disagree with those who are saying just take the job and be grateful. This is an attitude of fear and scarcity that is not good for one's happiness, nor productivity. It is also expected (at least in all industries I am familiar with, and I find it hard to believe that law would be different) that the new hire negotiate their compensation package, and therefore most employers start on the low side, expecting to negotiate up at least somewhat. Unless your SO asks for something outrageous, I find it hard to imagine that s/he will lose the job by trying to negotiate. Isn't negotiation high on the list of skills lawyers should have? Isn't confidence--or at least the appearance of confidence--high on the list of attributes of a good lawyer? If your SO is afraid to ask for more money (and even if s/he's not): I second the idea of telecommute 1-2 days a week. It doesn't cost the employer anything, while saving your SO commute money (and possibly dry-cleaning fees as well). Flexible schedule also might be possible (beat rush hour by coming in at 10 and leaving at 7?). Your SO also might want to ask for a review after 6 months rather than a year. S/he could prepare the employer for this now, by saying he understands that the economy/the industry does not allow for a higher salary at this time, but could we revisit this in 6 months? Extra vacation time might not be the message to send right now ("Oh, yes, I'm very excited to be working here but hey when can I take a vacation?")

Your SO also might want to ask for a review after 6 months rather than a year. S/he could prepare the employer for this now, by saying he understands that the economy/the industry does not allow for a higher salary at this time, but could we revisit this in 6 months? This. Say "I totally get why my salary is on the lower side right now, but I'm prepared to prove my worth to this company. I'd like to be considered for a raise after 6 months based on performance".

As Pax notes above, a lot of people with more experience and/or better credentials are out of work in today's legal market, and the fact that your SO has been temping for so long is, in my experience, something of a black eye. If it were me, I'd just ask what other benefits they offer (i.e., don't negotiate for CLE and bar fees if that's part of the package already). Asking for a slice of firm profits seems to me equivalent to interviewing for an entry-level job at NASA and trying to negotiate for them to send you to space. It's sort of sublime in its overreaching. As noted above, vacation time--unpaid or otherwise--is barking up the wrong tree. I have--literally--a full MONTH of vacation time, plus bank holidays, plus as much sick time as I need. Being a lawyer is not like being an office worker; you are required to bill hours. Any day I don't bill hours puts me further away from a bonus, and closer to getting fired. I don't think I've taken more than two weeks' vacation in any year since becoming a lawyer. If anything, you'd first clarify what the billing target is, whether pro bono work counts towards that (if pro bono is something SO is interested in), and what the billing increment is (which is just an FYI--much easier to hit targets when the billing is in 15 minute blocks than in 6 minute blocks). All the same, if I were interviewing someone who asked for reduced time, I'd question their commitment to sparkle motion. A four-day work week? Seriously? Either you and SO need to re-calibrate your understanding of what a junior associate's life is in a law firm, or you need to tell us the name of the firm so the rest of us can apply. Telecommuting is not really a big thing. As people note above, SO should be in the office; you need to network. Presumably, there will be days when SO lets the firm know he's working from home and brings home a bunch of files, etc. so he can wait for a plumber--that happens all the time, and would not be something I'd even mention in follow up discussions with the firm. Tech: Personally, I'd never pay for my own Blackberry or my own Blackberry plan. That thing is a shackle and a constant annoyance. If they want him to have one, they should pay for it. I would not ask to be issued one if you can avoid it--really, they're horrible. (For the avoidance of doubt, it's being in constant contact with the firm, not just the Blackberry (although RIM is shit)). At the end of the day, your SO just needs room to grow--get experience and training. Most small firms don't have training other than mentorship. Experience will come as SO proves himself.

The "graduated ten months ago" part is what gets me. Negotiation is for when you're in a position where you *can* walk away. Maybe not happily, necessarily, but where losing the opportunity won't be seriously harmful to you. Ten months without full-time employment is getting further and further away from the ability get meaningful post-graduation work. Take the job now. Negotiate for better things down the road if he likes it there, wants to stay, and is performing well. I would not, ten months after graduation, do anything which had even a whisper of a chance to get the offer revoked, even if it wasn't likely. If he's got some reason that this offer isn't as vital as it sounds, then negotiate away. (I don't see asking about bar dues/CLE as being "negotiation" as such, though, because they are pretty standard and it's totally reasonable to inquire if they're covered.)

The folks telling you to negotiate aren't in the legal business. A percentage of business brought in? Telecommuting? These are terrible suggestions. The legal market is contracting rapidly, and jobs are hard to come by; first year associates do NOT get a percentage of the "business they bring in", because they don't bring in business with any regularity or of any significance. That's what senior associates and partners do, generally. If you want a cut of firm profit, make partner. Tell him to be grateful, to be gracious, and to take the gig.

Congratulations to him on his first legal job! FWIW, he can go ahead and ask for another week's vacation, but if he's going to bill hours, this doesn't mean a whole lot. If you have an acceptable number of billables at the end of the year, no one's going to care if you had three weeks of vacation or two. But if you're really lagging on the billables, it's not going to do much good to be like, "Oh...uh...but I wasn't billing because I was on vacation, remember?" So, ask for an extra week's vacation by all means, but understand that actually *taking* that extra week might be a little tricky. One interesting way to approach this, though, might be to consider negotiating for a lower billable hours requirement. And this might sound like total crazytalk, but what if he were to pair this proposal with a salary cut of a few thousand bucks? Billing hours is a total, total, total, total grind. If he can in any way reduce the hours he's required to bill and make it easier and more comfortable to take time off, this is a total quality of life win. And maybe that's something this firm would be willing to do right now. I think asking for a cut of new business would be kind of ridiculous, personally. The best time to negotiate for that is when you are in a position to actually bring business into the firm. Negotiating for things like state bar dues, CLE courses, ABA memberships--those are all good ideas if he's not already going to get them. But given that all of this comes right out of the firm's bottom line anyway, it might not make a practical difference. But I can see a firm perhaps being more receptive to this than to a straight up higher salary. The telecommuting idea is interesting, but it will be really critical for him to have face time at the office when he's building relationships with people. Practicing law is totally about relationships, and his "clients" as such, when he starts out, are the partners, senior associates, and even staff members in his office. Telecommuting, if not strictly necessary, works at crosspurposes to this. It might sound great, but if he's missing out on this relationship building in his first year at the firm, he might wonder in a year or two why he's not getting the type of work or opportunities that he wishes he was getting. Just about anything you can negotiate for is going to cost the firm money in some way, so what's the firm's incentive to give this to him? He's in a tough negotiating position because the job market favors employers so much. It's not like we can advise him to just take another job offer if he doesn't like this offer.