White and Case Law Partner is the 2nd Highest Paid Person in Finland
If your name is Petri Haussila, I've got news for you: you're the second highest-paid person in Finland. Sweet, congratulations!
Apparently, Mr. Haussila is the head of White & Case's capital markets practice and is in charge of the BigLaw firm's Helsinki office.
Oh, and he raked in approximately $4.9 million in taxable income last year. The only person that has him beat in Finland is another attorney, former Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who made about $11 million.
The White & Case partner is certainly impressive.
It's especially impressive considering the fact that the average salary in Finland is approximately €3,030 a month for those working in the private sector. This translates to approximately $4,182 a month or $50,184 per year. For Finnish workers across all sectors, average earnings are around €2,971 per month or $4,100 a month (coming out to approximately $49,200 per year).
Let's compare this to the average U.S. employee. Seasonally-adjusted weekly earnings for the average American worker come in at about $758, or $39,416 per annum.
Of course, the average American salary is less than the average associate salary at White & Case. Typically, associates at BigLaw firms tend to rake in a healthy six-figure income.
But before you go off and vie for a spot at White & Case, just know that not everything is rosy at the firm. Just two years ago, a New York Times story broke that the firm was laying off around 200 attorneys. That's approximately 1 in 10 of the firm's legal pool.
So while Petri Haussila is sitting pretty on his multi-million dollar income, don't think just because you get a BigLaw job you'll be as lucky. But that doesn't mean you should get rid of your BigLaw dreams. You do need money to pay off student loans, after all.
Related Resources:
- Former Nokia CEO highest-earning Finn (YLE)
- First-Year Associates Just Aren't Worth $300 Hour (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- Want a Big Law Job? Skadden Debuts New App (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
