Private practice lawyers in Spain earn 60 percent more than in-house peers

Research also indicates significant numbers of lawyers are unhappy in their current roles and are seeking pay rises they are unlikely to receive

Top lawyers in private practice in Spain earn salaries that are 60 percent higher than similarly qualified lawyers working in-house, according to data taken from a worldwide salary survey.
    The research suggests a large proportion of lawyers in Spain are dissatisfied with their current roles and are seeking salary increases that they are unlikely to receive.
A global salary survey carried out by legal and compliance recruiter Laurence Simons found that the median salary for lawyers in private practice in Spain with 10 years´ post-qualified experience (PQE) was €110,000. This compared to a median salary of €68,000 for similarly qualified lawyers working in-house.
However, at the other end of the scale, there is not such a big difference between the salaries of newly qualified lawyers working in private practice and in-house. The study showed that a newly qualified lawyer with zero to one year´s PQE working in private practice has a median salary range of €22,000 to €30,000. This compares to a median salary range of €22,000 to €25,000 for a newly qualified lawyer working in-house.
According to the survey, 85 percent of lawyers in Spain received a bonus in 2013, with 74 percent saying they were “satisfied” with the bonus. A total of 70 percent of the lawyers said the bonus amounted to between 10 percent and 30 percent of their basic salary. Almost three-quarters (74 percent) of lawyers surveyed said they would be looking for a new role in 2014, and 60 percent said that they would be looking for a salary increase of between 11 percent and 25 percent. However, the report said such increases were “unlikely to be realised”.
More than a third (37 percent) of lawyers said headcount had grown in 2013, with another 37 percent saying headcount had remained at the same level. There were around 2,000 respondents to the Laurence Simons global salary survey, one percent of which were based in Spain.

  

Garcia-Sicilia

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