Debt Management

Graduate School Law School
21

<p>
[quote]
So do salaries increase relative to the increase of school costs?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I think that BIG(f?)LAW salaries have kept up. For example, when I graduated Columbia 10 years ago, tuition was about half what it is now. Starting salaries for BIG(f?)LAW associates were about $85k. </p>

<p>The problem is that salaries for other legal jobs have not kept up. So it seems to me it's getting harder and harder to leave BIG(f?)LAW or avoid it altogether.</p>

<p>Also, if you go to a school where less than 80-90% of the graduates go on to BIG(f?)LAW, you are running a serious risk of ending up heavily in debt without that high paying job.</p>

22

<p>80k?? What if you are 150k in debt, as in you have to pay <em>everything</em> with loans?</p>

23

<p>Do you know where you can find out what percentage of a school's grads go on to BIGLAW?</p>

<p>Also, do you know where i could find up-to-date info on how much BIGLAW associates make?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance</p>

24

<p>"Do you know where you can find out what percentage of a school's grads go on to BIGLAW?"</p>

<p>I found something like that on UVA's Law School website: <a href="http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/about/factsstats.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/about/factsstats.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Almost the entire Class of 2006 responded and it turns out that 249 out of 349 will be working for a law firm. Of those 249, 191 will have jobs with Top 100 law firms. Is Top 100 considered big law?</p>

<p>Also, it says only 10 will be working for corporate law. What's the difference between corporate law and big law?</p>

25

<p>Corporate law is an area of legal practice, big law just means a big, high-grossing firm?</p>

26

<p>no, when they say "corporate" on that pie chart I believe they mean working for a company directly rather than at a firm. Some companies have their own lawyers instead of (or in addition to) hiring a firm to do their legal work. Another term for working at a company instead of a firm is "going in-house." </p>

<p>This is a somewhat unusual thing to do straight out of law school since most companies hire people with a few years of experience (since corporate legal departments are generally smaller and have less time and money to train people than firms do). But working in-house has a reputation for a somewhat better quality of life than working at a big firm.</p>