Career Length

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>What is the average career length for a lawyer? And does it vary from one specialty of law to another (example: do tax lawyers practice longer on average than corporate lawyers)? </p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>I'd be more than a little surprised if anyone knows the answer to your questions. You'd have to take a survey of retired lawyers.</p>

<p>The State Bar of California published a general survey of California attorneys fourteen months ago:</p>

<p><a href="http://calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/reports/2006_State-Bar-Survey.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/reports/2006_State-Bar-Survey.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Here's a link to a national demographic survey on the ABA's site:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.abanet.org/marketresearch/lawyer_demographics_2006.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.abanet.org/marketresearch/lawyer_demographics_2006.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>They don't answer your questions, but they answer others.</p>

3

<p>For BIGLAW, most people stay in for 2/3/4 years. Making 195k is great, but the 80 hour work weeks are not. It just burns people out...</p>

4

<p>makes practicing law almost not worth it.. Time, effort, loans? Any explanation for the low salary?</p>

5

<p>Those earning under $50K may not be earning salaries: they may be self-employed. Some may be working part-time. Some may have worked for part of the year. Some are either starting up a practice at the beginning of their career, and others winding down one at the end.</p>

6

<p>An attorney can pretty much work for as many years as he or she chooses to work. However, many of the bigger law firms do have mandatory retirement ages for partners (to make way for newer partners to come in). An attorney with many years of experience practicing law under his or her belt may also choose to change paths a bit, by becoming an arbitrator or working for the government, for example.</p>