<p>I remember remarking casually to an older person when I was still in school, "I've never cared very much about money." His response: "That's because you're young. You will care some day."</p>
<p>He was right: money began to matter considerably more to me when I became a father. My family of origin had a tenuous hold on the middle class, and the desire to raise my children under more secure circumstances has been a strong motivating factor in my career.</p>
<p>Same for me, lalaland. As much as I'd love to be an anthropologist, I realize there's not much money to be had from it (I don't want to become a professor at this point). I'm driven by money because I've seen the first-hand effects of being low-income, and it's a terrible situation to be in. My parents are constantly fighting, and my mother, as manager of finances in the household, is always in a bad mood. We are living paycheck to paycheck, and my parents have no money saved up for retirement. What's more, there's little job security, as my father was just laid off (!), and so were many of my relatives. Nowadays, my parents are always in perpetual state of anxiety, and it has started to affect my mood as well (I'm much happier when in school, and I actually want to go back to Evanston after only a week of being out of school). I definitely don't want to live a life like this, and as such, I don't see being concerned with money as a bad thing. I'm thinking that with a high-paying job, I might even be able to give them some of my earnings to relieve them from some of their economic burden in their later years.</p>
<p>I kind of want to save the world...
You know, bring justice or whatever, but maybe I'm just being idealistic.</p>
<p>What responsibilities should a lawyer take?</p>
<p>lalaland and sanjenferrer bring up good points - about $ - and that is a reason that i, too, have been contemplating going to law school</p>
<p>however, i remember reading in another thread, someone saying 'if you're interested in making $, law is not the right field'... something to that effect, which would sort of undermine lalaland and sanjenferrer's motives.</p>
<p>can anyone (current lawyers, perhaps?) assess the validity of that assertion? is law not the right way to go if you want to "make a lot of money," or at least be very financially comfortable?</p>
<p>money money money...give it to me!</p>
<p>Actually, how much money do lawyers really make? I heard that it is not THAT much....</p>
<p>oh yeah, lawyers actually don't make that much at all. If you desperately want money money money, I guess the most direct route would be going to business school and get a job in hedge funds or mergers and acquisitions.</p>
<p>Jimmy, BMA -> IBanking is pretty much the equivalent to JD -> Biglaw. Long hours, lots of stress, and quite similar salaries.</p>
<p>At the entry level, salaries are pretty similar. Investment banking accelerates rapidly compared to JD salaries, in addition to starting at a younger age and thus giving you more time and less debt. Finally, IB gives you the chance to jump into other areas -- Hedge Funds, Private Equity, etc. -- which offer even more money and (somewhat) better lifestyles, while most young lawyers stay on the law track.</p>
<p>All true, but saying "oh yeah, lawyers actually don't make that much at all" like the above poster did is blasphemy if hes making the fair comparison of biglaw to IB, I wouldn't consider 140k "not much at all."</p>
<p>Posts 27 and 28 are talking about lawyering as a whole, not specifically "Biglaw." Most lawyers, and especially most entry-level lawyers, are not making $140K a year.</p>
<p>Yes and most business majors are not going into IBanking and making 140k a year straight out of school. If he wants to offer IB as the better way to make big money fast, biglaw is the only fair way to compare. IB is just as tough to get into as biglaw and just as demanding.</p>
<p>It's a fair point.</p>
<p>You guys seem knowledgeable about lawyer salaries...</p>
<p>What would you say is the average starting salary of a lawyer?
And then the average (estimate if you're unsure) of a lawyer working for 10 years?</p>
<p>It varies wildly. I'd say for the bulk of lawyers it'd be around 45-55k starting and after 10 years it can be pretty much anything depending on how good you are and who you know, but I'd say the average after 10 years would be about 75-100k. For the top 25 and especially the top 14, the salaries will be considerably higher if thats what you want. A lot of the top students will get clerkships, and generally build connections so that they will be able to get a much more humane job than biglaw within a few years, and some of the very best will try to become law professors. If you do go to a top 14 school and then choose to go into biglaw straight from there, starting salaries tend to be around 120-140k with the most extremes such as Cravath starting around 250k. But like a said, many of the top students choose not to take this route, biglaw in general is not a job that you will enjoy, and if you can land a decent clerkship you could be able to make biglaw money within a few years while working a job you actually enjoy. Now lets wait a few minutes and watch bluedevilmike tear apart my analysis.</p>
<p>Would you agree that those salary estimates would vary by region? </p>
<p>For example, your estimate for a lawyer who has worked for 10 years was 75-100K as an average.</p>
<p>Would you say that salaries of lawyers working in states like CA and NY would exceed this estimate (or at least lean toward the upper end)?</p>
<p>Yea, they would definitely lean towards the upper end, but cost of living in NY and CA would also lean way towards the upper end. While it'd still a net increase in salary with all things considered, the cost of living would help to even it out a little.</p>
<p>Cravath gives $250K? That's almost double the market rate. I'd be interested to see any data for this.</p>
<p>The general understanding I've gotten from these boards is that NY and CA are NOT, in fact, net gains. Their increases in salary do NOT offset their increased costs of living and therefore you actually get a NET loss of disposable income. But this is a fairly minor point.</p>
<p>Cravath is at $160k starting along with the other biglaw firms as far as I know. I am working with an '02 grad now who is at a large firm (not Cravath) and is making a base of $250k with a bonus in excess of $100k. Cravath is known to give large bonuses.</p>