When I was younger, I naively assumed my education would provide me a top-paying job. I thought that when I graduated from law school and passed the bar, I “knew” what I would be doing. Hell knows why — maybe it was my mother’s constant buttering-up the worth of education. All the same, the truth is surprising. If you’ve just graduated from law school, you’ve probably done some research on salaries for recent graduates. You know what you’re supposed to make — but are salaries really as high as you think? And if they’re not, what can you do about it?
Introduction
A study for the class of 2009, by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) showed a grim outlook for law graduates. The overall national average salary of $75,000 is less than $12,000 more than in 2008. In addition, the mean GPA of all employed graduates is only 2.86, on a four point scale. This is down from 3.0 in the year before.
What do new law school graduates earn?
Starting salaries for new lawyers vary tremendously. The median salary for Class of 2020 graduates with a full-time job lasting at least one year and reporting a salary was $75,000; while the mean, or average salary, was $102,858. For jobs in private practice, the overall median salary was considerably higher, $130,000, and the average was $129,309.
However, in smaller firms, which account for about half of the jobs taken in law firms, salaries of $60,000-85,000 were typical. Likewise, public service jobs — those in government, public interest organizations, and as judicial clerks — continue to offer relatively low starting salaries, with medians of $64,000, $55,000, and $60,000, respectively for the Class of 2020.
The prevalence of high salaries in large firms, in concert with generally lower salaries among other employers, continues to result in a salary distribution with two sets of peaks, as shown in the Class of 2020 salary distribution curve: one at $190,000, and one in the $45,000 to $75,000 range. The nature of this distribution means that most jobs paid neither the median amount of $75,000 nor the most common big law firm salary of $190,000. Although salaries of more than $100,000 accounted for more than one-third (35.5%) of salaries reported, over half (52.1%) of reported salaries were $75,000 or less. Outside of private practice, and to a lesser extent business and industry, most salaries were $75,000 or less.
Conclusion
It’s easy to become confused with the multitude of online salary calculators. Some of them are very good. Others are not so accurate. Still others are in a league of their own. This ranking will help you find the site that you can use to get a better understanding of the expected salary for law school graduates.
