Dear budding lawyers: need more proof on salaries?

NALP, the National Association for Law Placement, has a study out stating that there are plenty of jobs for lawyers, but the pay is not the huge sums the media talks about.

According to a NALP press release, while jobs may be aplenty, "It is also clear, however, that a strong employment market does not mean that every new graduate started work at a large firm at one of the much publicized $135,000 or $145,000 salaries. In fact, just 14% of salaries were either $135,000 or $145,000. Far more, 42%, were $55,000 or less. Far more graduates started work in small firms of 50 or fewer lawyers or in non-firm settings (71% of those employed) than at firms of more than 100 lawyers (just 20% of those employed)." And those numbers are up from last year. Check out the link for more interesting details.

I hope every aspiring lawyer thinking s/he is going part of the 13% (and becomes a lawyer for no other reason) reads and thinks long and hard about this before going six figures into debt.

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