Kilpatrick Townsend? Forum

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Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Apr 08, 2019 9:03 pm

Anyone know much about Kilpatrick Townsend? I wasn’t able to find much regarding non-Atlanta. What is their NY pay scale like? I know it starts at 190, but is it severely compressed afterwards? Are hours hard to come by? Is bonus even a thing or is it one of those $20k for high billers kind of firm?

I interviewed recently and liked the firm but am trying to learn more about their financials before potentially jumping into it.

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Apr 08, 2019 9:30 pm

In general, very compressed relative to market after first year. No raise at all if you miss hours, and in a number of groups, many have been hard-pressed to make hours. Other groups have been generally busy. No BD work counts towards the hours requirement, and only 50 hours of pro bono counts. Bonuses are generally nowhere near market, and for senior associates, that’s true even for the highest billers. Not as bad as 20k for high billing mid-levels and seniors, but six figure bonuses definitely aren’t a thing there.

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Apr 08, 2019 9:40 pm

Anonymous User wrote:In general, very compressed relative to market after first year. No raise at all if you miss hours, and in a number of groups, many have been hard-pressed to make hours. Other groups have been generally busy. No BD work counts towards the hours requirement, and only 50 hours of pro bono counts. Bonuses are generally nowhere near market, and for senior associates, that’s true even for the highest billers. Not as bad as 20k for high billing mid-levels and seniors, but six figure bonuses definitely aren’t a thing there.
OP here. Oh wow, no raise at all? That’s crazy. I didn’t know large firms even did that. I was nowhere near my hours at my current non-market firm and still received a decent raise.

Edit: did you work at Kilpatrick Townsend?

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:01 am

Kilpatrick is pretty standard for non-market firms in terms of pay. I didn’t meet my hours last year and still got a raise. Maybe the other poster had a really large hours gap?

I’m in a large East Coast office in trademarks. Really like the group and have heard the same from other trademark associates. Have friends who do patent prosecution and I have not heard good things from them FWII.

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 11, 2019 12:51 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Kilpatrick is pretty standard for non-market firms in terms of pay. I didn’t meet my hours last year and still got a raise. Maybe the other poster had a really large hours gap?

I’m in a large East Coast office in trademarks. Really like the group and have heard the same from other trademark associates. Have friends who do patent prosecution and I have not heard good things from them FWII.
Would you mind telling what class year is? And what your raise was? I’m debating between Kilpatrick and some other firms (not quite market - Blank Rome, Duane Morris, etc.) and I just want to know that a more senior associate isn’t getting completely shafted. For example, I received an offer from a firm that starts at 190 and was offering me 200 as a third year. I can only imagine how much below market a senior associate is.

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:47 pm

It’s a written policy that you’re not eligible for a raise if you don’t make your hours. They will make occasional exceptions if you have a really good excuse, but your team has go to bat for you. That’s a lot more likely to happen on a strong team that is doing well like trademark than on team that’s not doing as well (and is more likely to be unable to keep you busy). I know of someone (not me) who missed the minimum by less than 3 hours and didn’t get a raise, though that may have been in connection with mediocre reviews.

In general, black box means below market for most people, but it’s not THAT bad. I think 200 for third year in New York or California would be rare. It’s all very team dependent, though. You’re probably not going to find anyone who’s willing to post their team, year, location, and salary on the internet because that could easily out them, but they do have salary ranges for each level of associate (junior, mid, senior) that they should share with you if you get an offer. Keep in mind though that the ranges are big and at least based on the few data points I have (not just based on me, but still a limited sample size and mostly just one team), being at the top of any given range is rare.

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:08 pm

Anonymous User wrote:It’s a written policy that you’re not eligible for a raise if you don’t make your hours. They will make occasional exceptions if you have a really good excuse, but your team has go to bat for you. That’s a lot more likely to happen on a strong team that is doing well like trademark than on team that’s not doing as well (and is more likely to be unable to keep you busy). I know of someone (not me) who missed the minimum by less than 3 hours and didn’t get a raise, though that may have been in connection with mediocre reviews.

In general, black box means below market for most people, but it’s not THAT bad. I think 200 for third year in New York or California would be rare. It’s all very team dependent, though. You’re probably not going to find anyone who’s willing to post their team, year, location, and salary on the internet because that could easily out them, but they do have salary ranges for each level of associate (junior, mid, senior) that they should share with you if you get an offer. Keep in mind though that the ranges are big and at least based on the few data points I have (not just based on me, but still a limited sample size and mostly just one team), being at the top of any given range is rare.
This is really helpful. Thank you.

Could you give an example of a range for associates from 2-4 years if you have the range letter/email/notice easily accessible?

Edit: what do you think a 3rd year in NY would be? And, by hours minimum, do you mean that the hours required for bonus are the same as the hours required for a raise?

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:53 pm

1950 to get a raise or a bonus unless you’re a first year or they make an exception (changed from 1900 with the move to 190); 50 can be pro bono. If they don’t/didn’t give you the comp policies including ranges when you get/got an offer, ask for them.

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun May 19, 2019 5:51 pm

bump — Any other opinions on Kilpatrick Townsend, whether on salary, prestige, partners/associates, work, etc? I'm considering bidding on them for OCI. (For context, I'm really interested in doing copyright/trademark work, but don't want to narrow myself too early. Coming from a T6 school) Thanks!

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 20, 2019 2:04 pm

At least to my knowledge, in most offices, summers are hired into a specific group and spend the whole summer with that group so that it’s not necessarily easy to keep your options open if that’s important to you.

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Re: Kilpatrick Townsend?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed May 22, 2019 9:51 pm

Thanks! Anyone else got the scoop on the nyc office?

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