Don’t assume that all lawyers make a lot of money. Some do, most don’t. Legal salaries are driven largely by where you work. Private sector employers pay much better than government or public interest employers. The prestigious law firms located in the nation’s largest cities pay the best: it is not unusual to have a six-figure starting salary in New York City or San Francisco. 

Not bad, huh? Do you see dollar signs flashing before your eyes? If you do, perhaps you should think instead about how much a cot costs, because it will come in handy for those frequent late nights in the office.

The truth is, you will work for those bucks. A large law firm expects a commitment of your time and loyalty, meaning that, for many firms, you put the firm and its clients first. It is not unusual to work late nights, weekends, and holidays. As a new associate, you are at the bottom of the hierarchy, any you’ll remain there for at least 2-4 years, until you have established yourself in the firm, and younger folks have joined that you can now dump your “dog” cases on.

Most firms have partnership tracks of 7-10 years; even when you make partner, remember that you will now be at the bottom of the partnership hierarchy. In the old days, the longer you stayed with a firm, the more comfortable and protected you were. Not today. Seniority does not drive salaries anymore—business does. The partners who bring in the most business (the most clients, and/or the most dollars generated by clients) are the most powerful and the best compensated. While young associates are usually not expected to bring in business, they should be aware that, come partnership time, having clients helps, both in the partnership decision and the subsequent salary decision.

Developing a client base is something that you will have to do both in and outside of your firm. Client development hours are often in addition to your required work hours. Consequently, free time will remain at a premium for a long time if you choose to work at one of these prestigious firms. For that reason, many people leave large law firms after a few years. The attrition rate is quite high, as lawyers seek alternatives that will provide them and their families a more balanced lifestyle.

Government law jobs are a decidedly mixed bag. On the one hand, they are much easier on families, since the hours tend to be regular, and nights and weekends are rare. On the other hand, they are hard to get, particular at this time when national, state, and county governments are cutting back on staff due to budget shortfalls. Government jobs present different kinds of challenges, too: lack of staff, lack of adequate supplies, too many cases, too much bureaucracy, and the like. Public defenders do work that is often personally fulfilling and extremely frustrating at the same time. Like public defenders, prosecutors have huge caseloads and limited public funds for their offices. Agency attorneys work 9 to 5, but depending on the agency, the work can be repetitive and boring.

Public interest law jobs are perhaps the most personally rewarding, but of course they are the lowest paying—significantly lower than private and government jobs. There is a tremendous need for legal counsel for the poor, but many students find that they simply cannot pursue such low-paying jobs upon graduation. Recognizing this fact, law schools increasingly are offering student loan forgiveness programs to their graduates. These programs vary from place to place, but generally the school uses a fund of money to make the monthly student loan payments of an attorney who takes a public interest job. The amount of money granted as well as the length of the forgiveness period vary; often it depends on what one earns in salary from the non-profit. If you are interested in public interest work, but will need to take out loans to pay for law school, you should carefully investigate schools’ loan forgiveness programs during the application process. Some schools are more generous than others, and more supportive of public interest work.

With that introduction, let’s talk about salaries. What does a lawyer make? Happily, the National Association of Law Placement (NALP), a non-profit group representing legal employers, bar associations, and law schools, regularly surveys employers to ascertain current salaries and hiring trends. For the law school class graduating in 2001, the following are the median and mean starting salaries as determined by NALP:

Employer Type	$35,000 or Less	$35,001 - 55,000	$55,001 - 75,000	$75,001 - 95,000	More than $95,000	National Median	National Mean
All Types	12.8	37.8	11.9	8.7	28.8	55,000	71,201
Academic	31.1	50.8	11.4	2.3	4.5	40,000	47,474
Business	8.7	33.6	28.0	14.1	15.5	60,000	69,581
Judicial Clerkships	29.5	69.3	1.1	—	—	40,300	39,729
Government	22.4	69.4	6.8	1.1	0.4	41,000	42,739
Private Practice	5.2	23.7	13.8	12.2	45.1	90,000	86,837
Public Interest	56.6	40.6	2.0	0.9		35,000	36,189

Note: The number of jobs reported for all types of employers exceeds the sum of the individual employer types because not all jobs with a salary reported included an employer type. Salaries for solo practice are excluded. Source: Jobs & J.D.'s: Employment of New Law Graduates -- Class of 2001. Copyright NALP.

NALP undertakes this survey each year and reports results on its website. The most recent, detailed results can only be obtained by purchasing a report from NALP. However, NALP provides a summary of its findings on its website, and the summary is sufficient for pre-law students undertaking research on the job market. A summary of NALP’s findings for the Class of 2002, plus a whole lot of other useful information, can be found at its website. The specific link to 2002 salary information is: http://www.nalp.org/nalpresearch/summaryfindings2002.pdf