<p>Hey CC,</p>
<p>I am a new member, with some questions...so here they are:</p>
<p>How much does the average, starting out, lawyer make now? And how much is that lawyer able to make after much more experience? Thanks.</p>
<p>That varies wildly. Public or private? Big firm or small practice? Where'd you get your degree? How high was your class rank? All of those make a difference with respect to starting salaries. For an idea, for graduates of the top 30 or so schools (from Harvard down to around Boston College) who entered the private sector, average starting salaries are routinely over $100k.</p>
<p>In our area (not a top-10 City, where salaries tend to be higher), starting lawyers generally make anywhere from $38K-$45K a year to $65K. There are always a few jobs at the largest firms from $80K to $100K for top students who are willing to spend their first few years out of law school doing "big law" associate work. By 8-10 yrs, many lawyers are making $75K-$100K but this really depends on the location as well as the type of law that you're practicing.</p>
<p>(In my humble opinion -- which I know posters on this board will probably disagree with -- spending your critical first years out of law school getting big law experience in the slim hope of earning a partnership is a mistake. I'll be recommending to my own kid that he try to find a job out of law school in a mid-size firm that will let him do something other than research, due diligence and document reviews. I doubt he'll pay attention to my recommendation, since many law students dream of that big law paycheck. I guess if you've spent five years doing specialized research or assisting partners in a particular industry, there's also a chance that you can translate that work into a good-paying job at a company in that industry). </p>
<p>You can get a fairly accurate picture of salaries on sites such as Monster Board and from legal publications. Our Fortune 500 company monitors Monster pretty closely, and we set our salary scales to market.</p>