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The gender pay gap in the legal industry is hardly a secret: a 53% difference in average pay between male and female partners, according to the most recent partner compensation survey from Major, Lindsey & Africa.

The reasons for the gap, meanwhile, are still endlessly debated. In this era of women's committees and the Mansfield Rule, why does it persist? Are women often opting out for child care? Do they have smaller books of business?

Interviews with several Atlanta-based recruiters familiar with lateral partner negotiations suggest other factors are at play. Several said, generally speaking, they have seen how gender differences in negotiation tactics result in women leaving money on the table.

Male lateral partner candidates are more assertive about negotiating offer terms and more likely to ask for more money, several legal recruiters said. "In the simplest terms, men overvalue themselves and women undervalue themselves at the negotiating table," said Shannan Rahman, a managing partner at The Partners Group.

While every negotiation presents unique circumstances, the recruiters said that differences in how men and women negotiate pay can contribute to the compensation gap between similarly experienced men and women lawyers.

Women can change the dynamic using tactics such as naming the first compensation number in a negotiation, making counteroffers and conducting market research in advance, said national negotiation consultant Victoria Pynchon of She Negotiates in Los Angeles.

The Major, Lindsey & Africa survey determined the 53% pay difference between male and female partners based on the $959,000 average annual compensation for men compared with $627,000 for women who participated in the survey. The 2018 survey reported data from 1,390 law firm partners at Am Law 200, NLJ 350 and Global 100 firms nationally.

The gender pay gap widens as women law partners advance in their careers, Pynchon noted. A former Big Law litigator, she has coached professional women, including lawyers, for a decade on winning higher pay.

A lot of the midcareer women she coaches struggle with what she calls "post-traumatic recession syndrome," Pynchon said. "Many of these women started their careers during the recession, took jobs that paid below market–and they are still grossly underpaid."

Lateral Moves

Changing firms can be an effective way to win a salary increase—49% of lateral partners responding to the MLA survey gained at least 10% more pay by doing so—but female partner candidates are less likely to negotiate for more money than male ones, the recruiters said.

Women can be socialized to keep the peace, Rahman said, "but when negotiating salary packages for new jobs, there can be uncomfortable conversations at times."

"I've very rarely had a male candidate accept the offer terms as they were given," Rahman said. "Men will negotiate every point of an offer, while women a lot of times will take whatever the offer is at face value."

And even when a firm says it's making its top offer, men will often ask for more. Rahman said if she tells a candidate the firm won't go higher than $200,000, women will often acquiesce, "but men will ask me to go back for $210,000."

Men will often name their desired salary early in the discussion, said Whitney Worthington, a legal recruiter at Lucas Group. "Men tend to be very straightforward and say: This is what I'm making, this is how my compensation is structured, and this is what it would take for me to move."

Women, on the other hand, often do not want to disclose their current compensation because they "tend to feel, more so than men, that they are undercompensated," Worthington said, adding that women will often say they "are being paid below market and are not being properly valued."

The MLA survey bears that out. Of its respondents, 67% of the women said there is a gender pay gap, compared with only 11% of the men.

Negotiation 'Blowback'

Women face a bind when negotiating, Pynchon and the recruiters said, because they risk being perceived as aggressive or difficult when they assert themselves. "Women don't want to start out on the wrong foot," Rahman said.

Rahman will sometimes encourage candidates to ask if there is more money on the table. "The worst thing they could say is 'no'," she said.

But Pynchon said the "no" can be quite emphatic. When one of her clients, a woman partner who was "accomplished, brilliant and highly sought by the firm," asked for more money from the male partner making an offer from his firm, he yelled at her over the phone.

Pynchon advised her client to wait two days instead of the standard one day to return the male partner's call. The client opted not to call back at all—and three days later the partner called her with a higher offer.

Pynchon calls the disparity in treatment "gender blowback." To avoid gender blowback, a job candidate must present objective information on her market value to the decision-makers, she said.

Candidates asking for a significantly higher base salary than their current compensation should articulate a reason, Worthington said, whether it is because they're paid below-market or will be taking on new responsibilities. "I always tell them that this can't just be a number that you're throwing out."

That means doing some market research before entering a salary negotiation. In addition to a candidate's personal network, Pynchon suggested a new online resource: 81cents.com. For a $175 fee, the service consults lawyers, legal recruiters and hiring managers from its database of professionals for input on market pay rates.

'Make the First Ask'

The candidate should begin the negotiation by communicating the benefit she offers the firm and her plan for increasing revenue, Pynchon said. If a partner has a $1 million book of business, she should explain how she will expand it through cross-marketing or developing new business.

At that point, the partner should name her salary number. "Have your number in mind when you start the negotiation and make the first ask," she advised. "You are setting an anchor. Do not let the firm make the first offer or set the value range."

Naming one's salary number is a power move, she said. "Any number in a negotiating environment of uncertainty will draw the conversation in that direction. It will color the negotiation," she explained. "The person making the higher ask will get more."

Pynchon, an experienced mediator with an LL.M. in dispute resolution. advises candidates to name a figure that's a bit higher than what they actually want. "People [doing the hiring] are happier with an offer if they can negotiate some concessions," she said.

Book of Business

A partner candidate's main negotiating leverage is a portable book of business—especially for those seeking equity status. Since no one knows for sure which clients will follow a lateral to their new firm or how much work they will generate, book value is subjective–and there is room to negotiate.

The male respondents in the MLA survey had higher-value books of business on average than the female ones—even for respondents with similarly-sized books, 80% of women partners reported lower compensation.

Some women may understate the value of their book while men tend to overstate it. "It's as if men are giving the number of what they want their book to be or what it could be, instead of what is actually there," Rahman said.

Morris Manning & Martin's internal recruiter, Lauren Stone, said male partner candidates tend to assign a higher value to their portable business—perhaps $2 million—versus, say, $900,000 by a female candidate. But it's unclear whether men are overvaluing their books, or just have more business, she said. "Until we hire them, it's hard to know."

All partners at the Atlanta-based, Am Law 200 firm have equity status, Stone added, so any lateral candidate must have a portable book, ideally worth at least $750,000 in key practices such as corporate tech or real estate.

That said, she has received resumes from male partner candidates with only $200,000 in business.

Partner compensation isn't just based on book value, Pynchon said. Internal politics, such as how much partners may need the candidate's services and their power in the firm, factor into compensation decisions, she said, so it's important to negotiate directly with a firm's decision-makers instead of external recruiters.

"The people who need your services—and have been doing without those services—are the ones who will be motivated to get you more money," she said. "A lateral of sufficient quality—who has ambition, takes initiative and is a really good lawyer—is not easy to find."

Snowball Effect

Negotiating differences can affect a partner's pay for years to come, creating a "snowball effect," for a lateral who accepts a low offer, Rahman said.

Consider a partner candidate with, hypothetically, a $1 million book of business. Using a common compensation formula that pegs a lateral's salary at one-third the value of their book, a firm would offer the candidate $333,000 per year.

While a woman candidate would be more likely to accept that offer, Rahman said, a male candidate might push back and say his book is actually worth $1.2 million. If the firm agreed, he would make $400,000 instead of $333,000.

"Then the man says his career is on an upper trajectory and it's going to keep growing, so he needs $415,000 to make the move," Rahman added. Consequently, the male candidate has secured a 25% higher salary for the same book of business than the female lawyer who accepted the $333,000 initial offer without negotiating.

Firms do assess a lateral partner's actual book value after a year or two and adjust compensation accordingly.

But firms base salary increases on a partner's current pay. So, even if the female partner generates more revenue than anticipated from clients, she will not make up the difference from her lower initial salary.

"They are not going to give her a 25% increase in one year," Rahman said. Instead, a firm might offer the partner a higher bonus that year.

Women partners do negotiate for flexible hours, several recruiters said, so, for instance, they can leave early to pick up children.

Pynchon's advice: Don't do it. Negotiating for a flexible schedule is a "career-killer," she said. "It devalues how the partner is perceived in the law firm—and they make less money."

"Just go pick your kids up at 4 p.m.," she said.