<p>Some of the formulas used by firms to determine compensation are mind boggling. There is credit for originating business, different credit for originating it and working on it, different credit for originating it and referring it to another partner in the firm, different credit for originating it and having associates work on it, different credit for mining existing firm clients to get new matters and on and on. There are different percentages for different levels of billing - a certain percentage for the first however much, then a sliding scale from there. After all the calculations are done, there are often committees that apply completely subjective criteria based on the person’s contributions to the firm. There are as many different ways of calculating income as there are firms. I’m not sure if any still do it the old way - a few people senior partners got together and just assigned numbers based on things that only they discussed. Being on the compensation committee was like being on the Supreme Court.</p>