The Big Pay Days for A Select Number of Top Australian Lawyers

Recent revelations from reports in The Australian Financial Review have shown how a select number of ‘super partners’ at top Australian law firms are earning multi-million dollar paydays.

The newspaper researched sources from private records for its report on CEO earnings, but much of that information does not reveal the earnings of law firms and other private entities that have equally high earnings.

The example the newspaper provided was for the top Australian law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

A leaked document detailing the firm’s equity structure revealed that up to four partners could earn over $7 million this year.

This level of income is unexpected, especially for multiple individuals within the same firm, to the extent that it would place them among the top 50 highest-paid CEOs in Australia.

Key figures in this high-earning group include Gavin MacLaren, (above) the CEO and managing partner of the firm, renowned as one of the country’s highest-paid lawyers, and Mark Wilks, who manages external business for Gina Rinehart.

Other possible high earners are M&A specialist Sandy Mak, competition lawyer Mark McCowan, and infrastructure lawyer Andrew Stephenson. Corrs, however, has not provided any comments on this matter.

These individuals are humorously termed “super partners” at Corrs, with another 10 partners each earning above $3.5 million.

This is just the base equity, with the potential for a 15-20 percent increase in final take-home pay. In comparison, none of Australia’s big four consulting firms offer their top partners compensation close to these figures, according to the AFR report.

The Law Star Top Pay Deal

It has not been uncommon for top lawyers to earn big money and move firms for it, as we recently reported on the earnings of top London lawyers, including the high-ticket purchase by Paul Weiss of M&A star Neel Sachdev, who picked up the highest pay deal for a lateral transfer in the City, coming in at $60 million over three years.

And right back in 2018 top New York lawyer Scott Barshay in Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison agreed to pay him more than $US10 million a year, a package worthy of his thick book of business – which includes blue-chip names such as Qualcomm and Kraft Heinz – in the hopes he could turbocharge its deal making practice.