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Average lawyer salary?

Category: Law & Legal

jack blackjack black


What's the average salary for a lawyer? And a lawyer straight out of law school? I wanna live in newyork how easy would it be to get a job?

TheOrange Evil
TheOrange Evil

Legal hiring for the class of 2008 before the market took a real nose dive (the situation is probably worse now):

23% reported a salary of $160,000/year

42% reported a salary between $40,000-60,000/year

The two modes (most common salaries reported) were $50,000 and $160,000.

This data do not include individuals who failed to report or failed to get jobs at all, so this isn't a terribly accurate representation of what your job prospects are, but what salaries were most common for the class of 2008.

You may be wondering why there's such a contrast between the two modes - over $100,000. Biglaw firms try to stay competitive with each other and so offer the same entry-level salaries. The biglaw standard is/was $160,000/year for new hires. Thus, everyone who got biglaw in 2008 likely made $160,000 or maybe $145,000.

Everyone else, though, was much more likely to make between $40-60k, with $50k being the most common.

In order to get biglaw and earn that $160k, you really need to graduate from a top law school. The top schools are known as the "top 14" because they always occupy those same 14 slots on USNWR rankings, even if they float within the fourteen. Your grades will have to be good, as well, because even the top law schools do not provide a guarantee to biglaw. If you look at my second source, the NLJ250 (the 250 biggest firms in the US), you can see that the top schools are sending really no more than 50-55% of their graduates to the firms most likely to pay $160k.

poppy hebrank
poppy hebrank

I had a similar problem last year. Save yourself some time & click on the www.lawyersearchsite.tk


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