UChicago Law School #3 in Grad Pay

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>The</a> Law Schools Whose Grads Earn The Biggest Paychecks - Forbes</p>

<p>Here are the top 10 law schools whose grads earn the highest starting salaries:</p>

<ol>
<li>Columbia Law School</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $165,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $187,000</p>

<ol>
<li>Stanford Law School</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $147,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $202,000</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Chicago Law School</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $132,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $204,000</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard Law School</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $130,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $221,000</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Virginia School of Law</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $109,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $192,000</p>

<ol>
<li>Duke University School of Law</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $104,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $207,000</p>

<ol>
<li>New York University School of Law</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $104,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $197,000</p>

<ol>
<li>Georgetown University Law School</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $103,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $187,000</p>

<ol>
<li>Yale Law School</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $102,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $168,000</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Michigan Law School</li>
</ol>

<p>Starting Median Pay (Private Sector): $101,000
Mid-Career Median Pay (Private Sector): $185,000</p>

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<p>It is interesting that the mid-career salary metric is different from the starting salary one. Why do you think that is?</p>

3

<p>Probably performance and consistency are a couple of factors which weigh in on the mid-career salaries!</p>

4

<p>This is about the least interesting study ever. The starting median is essentially a measure of what percentage of the class takes a first job at one of the largest national law firms in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Chicago. At Columbia, it’s more than half, so the median salary is probably a couple dollars lower than the highest one. For the next set of schools, it’s just shy of half, so the median starting salary reflects starting salaries at large law firms in places like Boston, Houston, Miami, Seattle. Taking into account cost of living, those people may be doing better than their peers in New York. At a place like Yale, where maybe a quarter of the students take standard private-sector jobs coming out of law school, and it’s the bottom quarter of the class, the figure is irrelevant, except to confirm that if your goal is to make as much money as possible practicing law you probably didn’t choose to go to Yale (and you probably weren’t accepted if you applied).</p>

<p>The mid-career number doesn’t vary that much, except at Yale where employment patterns are atypical. To some extent, it probably reflects the proportion of graduates in law firms vs. in-house positions, or government or nonprofits, but it’s not that interesting.</p>