<p>Are there six figure jobs straight out of a top law school at medium sized firms that offer at least six figures for a manageable work schedule? Maybe a law firm wherein not many attorneys went to a school in the T14?</p>
<p>What is your definition of manageable? If you mean 9-5, then very unlikely. If you mean 8-6 generally with some weekend hours but not every weekend and available to put in long hours on occasion, then I think that is doable. Just don't go into litigation.</p>
<p>Yes I mean about 50-hours a week and the occasional weekend but I can still have a life and won't have to cancel scheduled vacations.</p>
<p>Why not litigation? I actually thought I'd like that the best.</p>
<p>Litigation is the practice area in which you can plan the least. Emergencies come up and you have to be available - even if you have that vacation in Tahiti planned. Trial preparation is particularly grueling and much of it lends itself to last minute work so you can find yourself working around the clock. If you want a more sane life, look at something like real estate. You still have to burn the midnight oil for closings but you can plan better. Employee benefits is always marketable and less hours intensive. High end estate and wealth planning or bankiing are other suggestions. Litigation and corporate merger/acquisition work can easily take over your life as a young lawyer. Don't forget that if you plan to live comfortably on $100k a year, you still need to do some "forum shopping" of your own to get the most bang for the buck.</p>
<p>Cartera45: I obviously agree with your characterization of various practices, but I think that OP is dreaming if he/she believes someone is going to pay a young lawyer a salary of six figures for a relatively normal work week. A 40-50 hour week is practically a part-time position in most law firms. Even if an office were to offer that salary and promise the new lawyer would have a life, the new lawyer would find himself/herself struggling to learn how to actually practice, putting in many additional hours. It helps, of course, if you're bringing in enough billings from a family business to cover your salary LOL.</p>
<p>OP can view the first few years of practice as being very similar to law school or preparing for moot court. You can put in a certain number of hours and get by, or you can put in the hours that it takes to excel and convince the partners that you're worth what they're paying you...and that they should keep you, instead of replacing you with that eager new lawyer who begs for a job the following year...</p>
<p>There are probably some exceptions in a few fields, such as tax law (in the off season!) but I can't think of many.
The unwillingness to work long hours and to "pay your dues" will be a deal killer for most interviewing firms, if they sniff it out.</p>
<p>The reality is that $100k is on the low end now for starting salaries from top law schools and, in the OP's hypothesis, he is graduating from a top law school. If he can pull off coif and law review, and doesn't need the big salary and big bonus, then it's realistic. I know mid sized to large firms where he could start at $110-115 right of law school and work 10 hour days with some hours on the weekend and the willingness to put in the long hours when necessary. Those firms want top candidates and can't pay $160k so the tradeoff is that the hourly requirement is lower. Bringing in business at the associate level at these firms - as with most large firms - would be irrelevant.</p>
<p>Government jobs can also get you a pretty decent salary. Having worked at a federal agency (not as a lawyer, though) and at a large firm, I'd bet that the hours at an agency are fewer.</p>
<p>USDOJ:</a> OARM: Salaries, Promotions, and Benefits shows people earning over $100k after 1.5 years on the job. Of course, that includes cost of living adjustments, meaning that $100k won't go as far there as it will in other cities.</p>
<p>If you want the best combo of cost of living, salary, and hours worked, I've heard Houston is great. The big firms there pay $160 to start, you work fewer hours than in NY or other big cities (definitely not 40-hour weeks though), and housing is super cheap.</p>
<p>The reality is that in the practice of law, or almost any client service industry, for that matter, your hours are often unpredictable because your clients needs and demands are not always easy to anticipate. The reality is that when you new to the practice of law, as intelligent and capable as you may be, assignments are simply going to take you longer to complete in a satisfactory way. </p>
<p>The reality, too, is that you don't generally get something for nothing -- and that includes getting paid a good deal of money at a young age. There are expectations that go along with that kind of salary, and among these are that you will work when required, regardless of whether that work is necessary late at night, on a weekend or holiday or during a planned vacation. </p>
<p>Every day I work with lawyers around the country, in big cities and in small towns, who work in different settings - big and small law firms, in house law departments, solo practitioners. When negotiations on our deals are hot or when we are trying to close a deal, we are all up late trying to get things done. We often work weekends. We often review documents while on vacation and we often change vacation plans. This is what we do to serve our clients' needs.</p>
<p>SallyAwp - That's my legal world too! I've never encountered any firm that had a 40-50 hour mentality, and we sure wouldn't hire them for our Fortune 500's work.</p>