About the Survey

Geographic Regions

We’re providing trended data for five prior years. In addition to compensation data reported by firm size, you’ll find reports based on the geographic regions and divisions (as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget) as well as several positions analyzed by metropolitan areas.

Data Analysis

Compensation surveys (when done correctly) carry particular burdens and responsibilities for anonymity of respondents’ data. To ensure that ILTA remained distant from the data, we partnered again this year with The Bench Survey Group. It is they who hosted the electronic questionnaire, maintained and analyzed the data and drafted the final report.

In keeping with our goal of providing comprehensive compensation data to our members, this year's results are available using a data visualization tool. Each section will provide further instructions for drilling down into data of specific interest to you.

Methodology

Statistics are calculated using participants' actual responses. In calculating the average salary, all reported salaries within a functional area and corresponding job title are added together and divided by the number of individuals providing data.

All salary data is reported in the aggregate to ensure confidentiality of the respondent. No statistics are shown for any job title that does not have salary data from at least five respondents. The lower and upper quartiles are reported only when data is collected from seven or more respondents. Therefore, certain tables will only show averages or medians. The number of respondents for each job title is shown on the Salary Table.

The statistical terms used in the report are defined as follows:

  • Quartiles are used to define the middle 50% of the range of salaries. One quarter lies below the first or lower quartile (25th percentile). One quarter lies above the third or upper quartile (75th percentile).

  • The median (50th percentile) is the middle or central number in a series of numbers arranged in order of value. There are equal numbers of smaller and larger observations on either side of the median.

  • The average (or mean) is the total value of all observations divided by the number of observations. This number may be distorted by a few outliers.

  • Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

Scope

In March, we emailed an invitation to participate to 15,357 ILTA members working in U.S. law firms. The invitation included a link to participate in a short survey requesting salary information for 131 different job titles across 13 functional areas of IT. We also invited 62 law firm HR departments to participate in this year's effort. HR department contacts received a link to a different survey instrument to facilitate reporting on multiple IT employees. These contacts were provided by our ILTA membership to accommodate firm requirements regarding employee participation in compensation surveys.

We sent various reminders and incentives to participate during April. A total of 1,851 individuals responded to the member survey, and 1,596 submitted valid information. (Responses were excluded due to part-time status, no functional area, non-U.S, and missing salary data.) Additionally, we received 43 surveys from HR professionals representing an additional 1,414 IT employees.

After thoroughly cleansing the data to remove duplicates and outliers, a total of 2,976 valid responses are included in this year's data.

Functional Areas

This report is divided into 13 sections based on the functional areas and job titles as defined below.

Includes head of IT, IT managers and supervisors, remote office IT managers, etc., where the scope of responsibility involves systems/technologies. Title should specifically reference IT (technology, IS, or systems). The primary duties of the position involve the leadership and/or supervision of others; has responsibility for successful outcomes within the scope of position.

• Chief
• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
Includes any position where the primary duties relate to developing or supporting infrastructure technologies. Positions that fall into this category would include responsibilities in the following areas: network administration, servers, LANs, WANs, data center, equipment maintenance, remote access, disaster recovery, e-mail system administration and security (where security is not a separate functional area). (This does NOT include application development or telecom/audio-video services.)

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Supervisor
• Architect
• Engineer
• Technician
• Specialist
Includes directors, managers, supervisors and coordinators of a Project Management Office. The primary duties of the position involve the project management/coordination of IT-related endeavors. This is not a legal project management position.

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Supervisor
• Coordinator
• Specialist
• Assistant
Includes any position where the primary duties specifically relate to security strategies, development, deployment and oversight. The term “security” might apply to network security, cyber security, physical security, risk management (often working closely with general counsel), and/or work with regulatory/compliance agencies.

• Director
• Officer
• Senior Manager
• Manager
• Administrator
• Architect
• Engineer
• Analyst
• Specialist
Includes any title specifically related to helpdesk and desktop/hardware support, which can include support of applications on PCs; support for the use of laptops, handheld devices, printers, scanners, multifunction devices (including break/fix); and home support; may include tracking and management of IT assets.

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager • Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator • Coordinator
• Supervisor
• Technician
• Specialist
Includes any title that references training. The primary duties of the position involve supporting competency management, e-learning, firm universities, skills assessment.

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Supervisor
• Trainer
• Technician
• Specialist
• Courseware/e-Learning Developer
• Writer/Editor
Includes any title specifically related to application development and might encompass developers, programmers, systems analysts and testers for applications that are not Web-based. (This does NOT include applications on the Web.)

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Supervisor
• Developer
• Programmer
• Analyst
• Technician
• Specialist
Includes any title that relates to the administration of applications. Duties might include application deployment and configuration. This functional area includes database administration, administering accounting and HR systems, email, CRM, document management systems, etc.

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Supervisor
• Specialist
Includes any title that specifically references telecom (other than LAN/WAN) or A/V. Some specific areas of responsibility might include phones, switches, VoIP, voicemail teleconferencing and videoconferencing.

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Engineer
• Technician
• Specialist
Includes any title specifically related to litigation or practice support. It encompasses the head of a firm’s practice support group, litigation support group and all departmental or functional managers/supervisors who work in these groups.

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Supervisor
• Technician
• Specialist
• Analyst
Includes head of firm’s KM department, functional managers and supervisors. The primary duties of the position involve supporting the firm’s KM initiatives, processes and systems. Some technologies related to KM include client-facing KM tools (extranets, etc.), data mining, enterprise search, expertise location, taxonomy/folksonomy systems, legal research and social networking.

• Chief
• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Analyst
• Developer
• Researcher
Includes any position where the title and primary duties relate to records and information governance. Individuals in this role would develop policies and maintain the organization’s electronic and paper files to comply with legal and ethical requirements across jurisdictions. Responsibilities may include file room management, records software, vital records management, matter and lateral attorney transfers, records storage, records retention and destruction, offsite storage contracts, data privacy and confidentiality.

• Chief
• Director
• Manager
• Coordinator
• Supervisor
• Specialist
• Analyst
• Clerk
Includes any position with primary responsibility for the development, maintenance and support of the firm’s Web-based systems, including portal/intranet system design, development and management; portal/intranet content management; and development of Web applications.

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Manager
• Assistant (or Junior) Manager
• Administrator
• Assistant (or Junior) Administrator
• Coordinator
• Analyst
• Developer
• Researcher
• Engineer