Earning Structure in Law
The Management Pyramid
The law firm has a basic management pyramid. The managing partners are in charge of all aspects of management. They are in charge of getting tasks and assigning them to associates. They conduct weekly task reviews to see whether the associates have completed all the duties assigned to them and significantly also assign them other tasks altogether. Such a management technique is fundamental and easy to handle because the managers are well known, and each associate falls under a specific manager who, in return, acts as the supervisor. There is a managing partner who manages all the human resource activities. The particular manager is in charge of hiring, firing, and warning the employees where necessary. This is the most powerful manager for the employees because he has executive powers to micro-manage the employees on different spectra (Caserta, S., & Madsen 2019). He always has to make sure that the company is in good fit and capable of managing their employees. He ensures that there are performance appraisals conducted. The other managers could be in charge of other activities such as operations management, accounting, and finance within the said law firm. Every manager is strictly on their end firmly and also has specific associates that he supervises now on the core side of the legal issues to be dealt with by the firm.
Positions in a legal firm
Legal manager- This manager is like the operations manager. He/she is in charge of the core business of the firm, which is to handle the legal issues. He is in charge of assigning the different tasks to the associates and other employees.
Human Resource Manager- The manager here is in charge of the day to day employee activities. He/she is also in charge of the hiring, firing, and disciplinary processes of the employees.
Finance Manager- In charge of the accounting aspects of the firm. He/she is supposed to keep the books of the firm and always makes sure that the firm is up to date in terms of licensing and tax remittance (Kay 2018). He ensures that the firm is also updated concerning its financial position.
Associates- These are the other lawyers who are at the firm. They are lawyers taken in by the firm to deal with the core issues of the firm in general.
Company secretary- As an employee, the secretary is in charge of the front office management issues (Kay 2018). The secretary also schedules for meetings within the firm and is the one that goes around to ensure that there is a flow of information within the firm.
Clerk- Conducts all the clerical works and ensures that all firm documents are correctly filed either within or at the requisite registries as well.
Salary structure.
Law is one of the best paying industries in the country. A legal advisor in the law firm earns approximately $77,000 per year. On the other hand, a lawyer receives an average of $120,000 per year. This is an excellent salary considering the different wages in other areas of practice in the country. By such a salary, it makes law appear to be one of the most prestigious businesses in the country just by the fact that there is so much that one could earn from the system at this stage. Such a salary should be encouraging to most people to pursue this because, at the advanced stages, one could obtain even more than this basic salary as such.
Earning split between the employee and the firm
For most firms, the employee is never entitled to a share of profits. They are assured of bonuses at the end of the year. The gift acts as a motivation for the work that is performed within the year. The partners are the ones who share the dividends while the employees are offered bonuses in case of profits (Tomlinson et al. 2019). On the other end, the employee earns a monthly salary from the firm, which is only guaranteed entitlement that they can always claim from the firm as per the contract. The bonuses are out of the goodwill of the firm to act as an encouraging factor to the employees to keep on working as hard as they did previously to earn well for the firm as such.
Chances of promotion
There are different tiers of management. The only hope of development to control is to the human resource manager position. The other levels of management are a reserve of the partners (Batton & Wright 2019). Firms do not always have a good chance of promotion into management even as most of the managerial work is done by the owners who are, in return, considered to be partners within the firm as such.
In some firms, finance management is done by an associate who is qualified in accounting. To achieve this status, one must have trained as a certified public accountant or certified public secretary (Ariens 2019). These qualifications are essential in the development of the individual as they could such an excellent job within the firm. For me to gain entry into this management position, I will need first to be qualified in either of the two locations.
References
Tomlinson, J., Valizade, D., Muzio, D., Charlwood, A., & Aulakh, S. (2019). Privileges and penalties in the legal profession: an intersectional analysis of career progression. The British journal of sociology, 70(3), 1043-1066.
Batton, C., & Wright, E. M. (2019). Patriarchy and the structure of employment in criminal justice: Differences in the experiences of men and women working in the legal profession, corrections, and law enforcement. Feminist Criminology, 14(3), 287-306.
Kay, F. M. (2018). SOCIAL CAPITAL, RELATIONAL INEQUALITY THEORY, AND EARNINGS OF RACIAL MINORITY LAWYERS. Race, Identity and Work, 32, 63À90.
Ariens, M. (2019). Making the Modern American Legal Profession, 1969-Present. Mary’s LJ, 50, 671.
Caserta, S., & Madsen, M. R. (2019). The Legal Profession in the Era of Digital Capitalism: Disruption or New Dawn?. Laws, 8(1), 1.