True but that can be very stressful too and its mostly confined to very small firms (e.g. solo partner with 1 or 2 associates under him) and more low-value type of legal work like probate, wills, injury claims the like.

I've never seen this kind of arrangement for anything larger than a 10-lawyer firm and I would never expect a 2PQE associate to bring in a large corporate client (unless his father's company is the corporate client).

Anecdotally, I've heard the increases in lockstep is usually something like

Big 4 and other top tier firms: NQ: $5.5k, 1PQE: $6.5k, 2PQE: $7.5k, 3PQE: $8-8.5k

Mid tier firms: NQ: $4.5-$5K, 1PQE: $5.3-$5.5k, 2PQE: $6-6.3K, 3PQE: up to $7K

How accurate is this?