Estudios jurídicos recuperan sueldos prepandemia mientras abogados de empresa siguen rezagados
ESTUDIOS & EMPRESAS
La Guía Salarial realizada por Idealis y Work On Law para el año 2021 advierte de un renovado boom por el lado de la demanda, pero es el empleador el que hoy tiene el “sartén por el mango” en la negociación.
Revisa aquí la publicación del Diario Financiero en conjunto con Idealis y Work On Law. Nota de las periodistas Paula Vargas y Claudia Saravia.
Guía Salarial Idealis & Work On Law
El mercado laboral de los abogados también se vio impactado por la pandemia. Los recortes en empresas y estudios se dejaron sentir no solo a nivel de menores sueldos, sino también de reestructuraciones que implicaron la salida de cientos de profesionales de sus fuentes laborales. A esta fecha el panorama es radicalmente distinto, según refleja la Guía Salarial 2021 elaborada por Idealis y Work On Law, plataformas de reclutamiento de abogados lideradas por Felipe Lavín.
La Guía Salarial realizada por Idealis y Work On Law para el año 2021 advierte un boom de contrataciones.
De acuerdo al reporte, realizado sobre la base de más de 20 mil postulaciones realizadas a octubre de este año, el sector -al parecer- está en franca recuperación y varias son las señales que lo confirman.
Por el lado de la demanda, Lavín reconoce que hay una especie de boom de contrataciones, pero advierte que no siempre está acompañado de mejoras salariales por la gran disponibilidad de profesionales.
El Director de Idealis y CEO de Work On Law precisa que, dado lo anterior, hoy el “poder negociador” está en manos del empleador. De hecho, del reporte se desprende que un 25% de los postulantes que decide corregir su expectativa de renta, lo hace a partir de un monto inferior a su último sueldo. Esto, para “ser más competitivo” ante el resto. Mientras, el 50% de los postulantes adaptan su pretensión de sueldo según el cargo al que postulan; es decir, no tienen un número fijo. El especialista hace una salvedad con respecto a la búsqueda de determinadas especialidades. “La expectativa de cambios profundos en el marco regulatorio chileno ha generado una alta demanda por abogados especialistas en Aguas, Recursos Naturales, Proyectos, Financiamiento, Derecho Público, Laboral, Litigios y Tributario”.
Añade que los especialistas que están en mejor posición de negociar son los que tienen entre dos y cinco años de experiencia, que es donde está la mayor escasez. Con todo, el sueldo promedio de profesionales sin experiencia en estudios jurídicos grandes bordea los $ 1.700.000 líquidos. Es decir, un 6% más respecto del período previo a la pandemia.
Otra señal de recuperación está en que los estudios jurídicos grandes lograron recuperar los sueldos precrisis. A esto se suma que los bonos, que habían sido suspendidos, “en algunos casos se pagaron retroactivamente cuando la firma recuperó su nivel de facturación”, y , por otra parte, se respetó el lockstep o plan de carrera de los primeros cuatro años, bajo el cual los abogados ven aumentado sus salarios acorde a la experiencia y de forma progresiva.
El otro lado de la moneda
En la vereda contraria, aquellos más golpeados por la crisis corresponden a los sueldos de gerentes legales (o fiscales), cuyos montos bajaron en promedio 10% si se compara a los años previos a la llegada del Covid-19. Así, el sueldo medio de un fiscal hoy alcanza los $ 5.700.000 líquidos, un 4% menos que hace dos años. En los percentiles más altos -y dejando de lado los bonos- la baja fue de 6%.
El percentil más bajo de esos sueldos no reportó variaciones significativas en pandemia y se mantuvo en $ 3.700.000 líquidos.
En relación a la brecha de género, esta se mantiene casi sin cambios pese a que hoy existe un alza de ofertas part-time y trabajos que incorporan una flexibilidad de horario y lugar de trabajo. Pues, si bien, “no existe un problema con la empleabilidad femenina al comienzo de la carrera de las abogadas”, indica el CEO de Work On Law, a partir del cuarto año de experiencia baja la empleabilidad, ya que aumenta la reticencia a contratarlas y se les paga hasta un 20% menos por el mismo trabajo que a sus pares hombres.
Comienzo de la carrera: ¿abogado asociado o abogado de Empresa?
¿Trabajar en una empresa o en una oficina de abogados?
Hasta fines de los '90, un estudiante de Derecho, que quería hacer una carrera de "jurista" y profundizar en su conocimiento técnico parecía tener una sola alternativa: trabajar en un estudio de abogados. Si el objetivo era por su parte conocer de un negocio y ejercer en contacto con otros profesionales el camino sugerido era una empresa —in-house— o el servicio público.
Hoy esa realidad ha cambiado. Actualmente existen trabajos in-house que forman a los abogados con un rigor intelectual que antes sólo ofrecían los mejores estudios jurídicos. Sin embargo, oportunidades así son escasas.
Las siguientes preguntas te ayudarán a identificar buenas oportunidades de formación profesional para abogados jóvenes en empresas:
1º ¿Cuál es el perfil de la persona que será mi jefe?: mientras más "abogado" y menos "gestor", aumentan las probabilidades de contar con un mentor.
2º ¿Cuál es la política respecto a externalizar trabajo con estudios jurídicos? ¿Qué materias deben tratarse in-house? Las fiscalías —departamentos legales de empresas— que forman más en lo jurídico ven internamente los temas legales que se relacionan de manera directa con el giro de la empresa.
Una de las mayores diferencias entre estudios y empresas se da en el plano de las remuneraciones" [Leer análisis de sueldos de Work On Law]
Han ido quedando en el pasado las grandes empresas que no tienen un departamento legal o bien tienen un fiscal sin equipo. Cada año aumentan la cantidad de fiscalías robustas que ofrecen a los abogados jóvenes una buena formación.
Hace 15 años lo habitual era ver que los mejores abogados se proyectaban como socios de importantes estudios de la plaza. Hoy muchos consideran que la cumbre de su carrera es ser gerente legal. Al existir gerentes legales sumamente competitivos y bien calificados, los abogados que están comenzando perciben que también pueden hacer una carrera de excelencia al alero de estas fiscalías 2.0. Las gerencias legales modernas ofrecen sueldos atractivos que les permiten expandir sus equipos y con ello internalizar el manejo legal del negocio principal. Sus abogados responden asuntos cada vez más complejos y especializados. No es raro encontrarse actualmente con especialistas en compliance, derecho laboral, libre competencia, derecho ambiental, que están en un rol in-house.
Es importante tener presente que las empresas revisten mayor riesgo para la estabilidad laboral del abogado. El socio de un estudio jurídico fácilmente puede trabajar en su propia oficina por el resto de su vida; a contrario sensu, no hay gerentes legales vitalicios. En las empresas siempre ronda el fantasma de la venta o fusión, con el consiguiente cambio de dueños y jefes, cambios de confianzas, cargos que se hacen redundantes, etc.
El abogado que da un salto a empresa también deja de lado la capacidad de capitalizar en su antigüedad —que es normalmente clave a la hora de ser aceptado como socio.
Dependiendo cuales sean tus intereses de desarrollo profesional, te convendrá seguir uno u otro camino.
Highest-paid lawyers in the continent
According to our data, on average Chilean lawyers are likely to be better compensated than their peers in the rest of the continent (with the only exception of those qualified in the United States and Canada).
It comes as no surprise that US lawyers, followed by Canadians, have the highest total compensation in the continent. However, Chile holds a solid third place. This might shock those who expect the bronze would go to countries with much larger populations, such as Mexico, Brazil, Perú or Colombia.
Chilean Lawyers: the best paid in Latin America
Chile is definitely a powerhouse in the region. Solid institutions have attracted global companies for decades. The nation’s capital, Santiago, has climbed in the ranks of expensive cities and is home to elite practitioners who have completed an LL.M from a top foreign law school, an internship at an American law firm and/or admission to the NY Bar.
Senior Associates of top tier law firms in Chile will have pocketed around USD 120,000 this 2018. Such firms can easily put USD 43,000 per annum in the hands of entry-level lawyers in their early twenties.
A last token of this trend is the ever-growing segment of young General Counsels that have surpassed the USD 420,000 threshold (salary + bonuses); and some of them are not even in regional roles.
English is mandatory to land any of these high-paying jobs. However, soft skills is the critical trait of this new generation of highly sophisticated attorneys.
Lawyers, do you really need an MBA?
It won’t earn you more money, but for sure, it will shape the way you think.
At least that’s what the majority of those who hold an MBA’s we’ve surveyed have responded.
Every year there’s a new MBA ranking, but some Business Schools are opting out to provide their info to the magazines that publish them. I think an unsaid reason for those schools to abstain is that it’s hard to make any sense out of the fact that one year you may be at the top of the ranking and the next be ranked several places down, just because the ranking has now included a new criterion.
Therefore, rather than offering yet another ranking, here are the most powerful motivations behind the growing number of lawyers who are willing to spend considerable resources in pursuing this still unique accolade for their resume. Unique because around 4% of lawyers in pan-Canadian law firms have an MBA. Take Stikeman Elliott for example: 6%.
Our respondents also tell us how they have benefited from having an MBA, sending a positive signal to those who are thinking about getting one. However, they raise two important red flags on what to expect: there's no guarantee that having an MBA will land you a better job, nor that you'll earn more money.
We asked 150 JD/LLB + MBA in Canada; these are their answers:
Finally, here are some quotes from our respondents:
An MBA adds immediate credibility for a business lawyer.
I think the biggest thing is really that there are no guarantees. If you have a good law school average and you would be competitive anyways, an MBA makes you really stand out. If you have a poor law school academic record, the MBA won't save you. And yes, the program is a LOT of work. I don't regret it for a second though and I'm quite sure the great legal job I have lined up for after law school is at least partly attributable to my JD/MBA.
I highly recommend an MBA, especially for those lawyers that don't have a business background. Private practice is a business and most lawyers don't have the business skills to run a business. Further many areas of law beyond corporate/commercial have a financial component, for example family law can have a complicated financial component that I notice many lawyers don't fully understand.
Another reason to pursue a joint Masters degree (of any kind) is that it opens the door to graduate student funding opportunities - many JD/MBA students are able to subsidize their law degree using government or grad school funding that is not available to JDs (considered an undergraduate program for most purposes).
7 facts of the 7 Sisters
We've analyzed the profiles of over 25 hundred lawyers currently working for a select group of Canadian law firms known as the 7 Sisters. Here are 7 interesting facts about them:
1# Where are their lawyers located?
2# The 7 Sisters sorted by size and location
3# Bay Street, Montreal and Calgary at a glimpse
4# Which law school did 7 Sister-lawyers attend and where do they work now?
McGill should deserve extra credit for those 105 lawyers who work in Toronto; that’s more than any other non-Ontario law faculty. The BCL program is probably a key factor to this success.
UBC, the undisputed leader when it comes to the Sisters’ offices in B.C., also claims a large stake of the legal markets in Ontario and Alberta.
5# The top 7 law programs among the Sisters in Canada
6# A closer look at Bay Street
7# What LL.M’s do lawyers at the 7 Sisters prefer?
Stay tuned, we’ll discuss this fact in a future post.
Law Schools that will land you a job on Bay Street
Maclean’s Magazine compares law schools every year. Osgoode Hall has routinely ranked in the bottom third* when it comes to “elite firm hiring”, one of the several aspects the Magazine considers to determine “graduate quality”. It is an interesting study, but it doesn't seem to portray the fact that 22% of the lawyers that currently work with one of the “Seven Sisters” studied law at Osgoode, putting the school in first place, even ahead of U of T (21%).
Alma mater, matters! The best Law Schools are a direct conduit to the best law firms
Let’s focus on one single stat: which law schools can claim a greater percentage of their graduates employed in Canada’s biggest law firms? But first of all, why consider only Big Law? Although talented lawyers can be found in smaller firms, public service, universities and companies, large law firms have tailor-made selection processes intended to secure the best articling students. Later on, they’ll apply rigorous filters to verify reputation and the portability of a lateral’s practice.
Here are the stats we obtained after crunching the data of nearly 4,000 Big Law lawyers nationwide. Use the first year enrolment charts to help you gauge the size of each faculty.
Law schools that will land you a job on Bay Street
If you’re bound for Bay Street, the chart below will help you see what those firms are made of:
When considering the amount of students of each faculty, U of T graduates seem to be the most successful in getting hired by Big Law all across Canada.
As to the “Seven Sisters”, more than half of the partners and associates went to Osgoode Hall or U of T. Next time we will have a closer look at the Sister's numbers.
* Osgoode ranked 10 out of 16 in the “Elite Firm Hiring” section of the 2013 edition; up from nº12, in the 2009 edition. ** First year enrolment information was obtained from oxfordseminars.ca. The number for University of Montreal was approximated by the author.
Multi-Bar Lawyers in Canada
Are you admitted to practice law in multiple jurisdictions?
If so, you might be among the 12.1% of Canadian lawyers working at large firms who can flash more than one badge to appear in court. If you think that the most common combination is to be admitted to practice both in Québec and in Ontario, you might have to guess again. Oddly enough, 31% of “multi-bar lawyers” in Canada are allowed to practice in the state of New York.
We analyzed the profiles of 3,142 lawyers who currently work in Canada’s largest law firms
We analyzed the profiles of 3,142 lawyers who currently work in Canada’s largest law firms and surveyed quite a few partners and lawyers from such firms.
Under national mobility agreements many lawyers are allowed a limited practice in other provinces; however, only those that are called have no restrictions when representing their clients’ interests.
This article, when stating a lawyer is admitted to practice refers to those that are fully licensed.
Roughly, only 1 out of 10 lawyers who work in these big and competitive law firms can practice in more than 1 jurisdiction. Is this an asset to these already top-notch lawyers? Absolutely, it sets them apart from the crowd:
· 12.1% of these multi-bar lawyers have been called to more than 1 bar
· 1.6% have been called to 3 bars
· 0.2% have been called to 4 or more
How unique is your combination?
A compelling law-firm bio reads: “Jane Roe is one very few lawyers whose call to both the Quebec and Ontario Bars qualifies her as a ‘national’ practitioner”. Jane Roe is among the 12.8% multi-bar lawyers who combine ON & QC bars. Other common combinations are:
· AB & ON: 16.8%
· BC & ON: 16.5%
· Any province & any territory: 9.0%
· BC & AB: 8.8%
However, the most common combination for a lawyer in Canada actually does not involve any of the Canadian provinces or territories, but rather the State of New York:
· Canadian bar & NY: 31.1%
· ON & NY: 21.5%
“It has been useful to my practice”
Many multi-bar lawyers could argue that, in their case, this was a result of having had to update their credentials upon moving to another province or territory.
But what about the increasing number of lawyers being admitted to practice in the Territories? Why are most lawyers with more than 3 calls to different bars specialized in litigation, environmental law or aboriginal law? Or why would someone in the area of capital markets be admitted to all Prairies and the Yukon?
For many it has been a strategic decision.
Litigation attorney Keith Marlowe, an associate at Blakes, is among the 0.06% of lawyers in Canada who can actually appear before courts in more than 6 jurisdictions both in the US and Canada. He uses his Alberta and Ontario bar calls on a daily basis. His multiple-bars have helped him to speak the technical language required in each jurisdiction. For example, Alberta has adopted the term “questionings for discovery”, whereas other provinces use “examinations”; in the US the proper term is “depositions”. England and Wales have their own jargon that is familiar to him as well, because in fact, he is admitted to practice there too. 8% of Canada’s multi-bar lawyers have been called to the Bar of England and Wales.
Maxime Faille is a partner in Gowlings' Ottawa Aboriginal Law and Litigation Group. He has been called to the NWT, Yukon, and Ontario bars, and has an impending call to the Nunavut bar. In his words: “the northern jurisdictions do not participate in mobility and, as such, an ability to practice law on behalf of clients there is quite limited.” Multi-bar membership has been essential to his engagement in constitutional litigation in the territories and incidentally helpful to his practice in Aboriginal law, where he deems that having multiple bar calls is increasingly the norm and something necessary.
Mathew Good, a Vancouver associate of Blakes’ litigation group claims that his 5 bar admissions, quite a record, have helped him comply with the Inter-Provincial Mobility Agreement that sets practice limits on lawyers who haven't been called to the relevant bar. Matthew points out that these admissions to multiple-bars “have been beneficial to my practice, because they have given me – through examinations and admission – deeper familiarity with jurisdictions in which I regularly practice, as well as respect and connection with members of those Law Societies.”
Bill McNaughton, a partner at BLG is licensed to practice in BC, Alberta and Yukon. This has been especially useful to his practice in TeamNorth®, a section of BLG servicing Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon and the upper regions of several provinces.
Patrick Floyd is a partner at Gowlings Ottawa office. He has been called to the New York, Ontario and Nunavut bars. This has not been due to him moving from one place to the other, but rather an asset to his practice in aviation. His combination is actually an excellent blend of Canadian provinces and Territories and the US.