Only 4 Jobs In America Pay More Than Being A Lawyer

[FarCenter]

Despite the bleak job market for law school grads, things don't look completely terrible for the legal industry.

Lawyers are the fifth-highest paid professionals in the country, MSNBC reported Tuesday, analyzing recent numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The average salary for lawyers is $130,490.

...

Doctors topped the list and were followed by orthodontists and dentists, chief executive officer, and petroleum engineer.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/lawyers-are-most-highly-paid-in-us-2012-7

[hifiguy]

1. I graduated from law school 24 years ago.

And it was an Ivy League school. I've never made more than $60K per year. I make about $26K per year now.

The TOP lawyers are exceedingly well compensated - I have a number of classmates who pull down multiple millions per year. Work for legal aid or the PD's office and you will be eating a lot of ramen noodles.

The average means nothing. If there are two guys in a bar that make $40K each and Bill Gates walks in, the "average" per-person income is suddenly in the hundreds of millions. The mean is the only thing that matters when evaluating data like this.

[grasswire]

3. thank you for that voice of reason

I hope you've been able to pay off your student loans, if any.

[COLGATE4]

4. I worked as in-house counsel for 20 years

and only got up to 100K my last 2 years. The average is distorted by those at the big firms that are billing at $400-$500 an hour. Not so for the rest of us poor shmucks.

[Orangepeel]

8. Median, but otherwise yes

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Or even mode,

which is the value that appears most.

Mean = Average

[white_wolf]

9. Yeah, I want to go to law school, but I don't expect to come out rich...

it's just what I want to do. It's the only thing I really want to do.

[elleng]

11. Absolutely correct; I can vouch for this, hifi.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. I have a similar experience

I passed the California Bar in 1983 and my salary has never reached $100,000. My first job in the law was for a personal injury firm. My boss was good friends with a personal injury lawyer who was a money-making superstar. He had a long string of cases with judgments in the tens of millions each time. Of course he got most of his cases from other lawyers and had to share fees. But supposedly he was worth well over $100,000,000. At one point I tried to go on my own and open my own office. After three years, despite being able to bring in a lot of cases, I was still losing money. The overhead and advertising were killing me.

[Mosby]

16. Bimodal distribution

Chart pretty much confirms what you said.

http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2007/09/median-vs-mean-.html

[uponit7771]

21. +1!

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. "Average?" Gah! n/t

[jberryhill]

5. You DO have a Constitutional right to a lawyer, though

As a lawyer, I always get a kick out of some doctors who freak out at the idea of people having a right to health care.

The right to an attorney, for those accused of crimes, is written right into the Constitution. Yet, somehow, the profession manages to survive.

[FarCenter]

7. Relying on a court appointed lawyer is taking a really big chance

If you are going to court, you need to bring your very own well-paid counsel.

[white_wolf]

10. I really think we should pay public defenders more...

Sure we'd have to raise taxes, but it might help people who can't afford it get good counsel. Of course, I think we should pay teachers more, so what do I know?

[Nevernose]

18. Having worked in the DA's office

I'd honestly almost go with a public defender (depending in the circumstances). Most of the private attorneys rarely came to criminal courts, whereas PD's are all experts at what they do -- just horrifically overburdened.

[FarCenter]

19. You definitely need a lawyer who specializes in the area that is needed.

I know of a woman who is serving several years and is probably not guilty. But she was represented by a lawyer recommended by a friend of her family....

[Yavin4]

6. A Great Example of How Stats Don't Tell The Full Picture

First, it's an average of those actually practicing law. The majority of law school grads don't even practice law. When their salaries are factored in, the salary picture changes dramatically.

[haele]

13. Wow, how do I get me a degree in CEO'ing...

Oh wait, it's not a smarts-needed type profession that you might need education or training, it's the profession you can buy if you have enough money, are born to be in or have the talent for finding the right friends to get, right?

Haele

[FarCenter]

14. An MBA helps.

[haele]

15. It sometimes does help -

But what helps even more is the ability to sell yourself to the right people. Especially when a company goes public. The high-level former worker bee MBAs in my company that worked their way to executive levels and helped to keep the company successful when it was "employee owned" didn't last very long once the company went public; the shareholders wanted people they could "trust" and all the old executives that thought they were looking at a potential pay-raise and larger company found themselves forced out for the multi-million dollar job-hopping executives. The actual work the company used to do has declined in quantity and to some degree, quality as the employees found out they were fungible and the average wage began to decrease; but boy o boy, executive wages have sure shot up.

Haele

[FarCenter]

17. What degrees do the "multi-million dollar job-hopping executives" have?

There are way more MBAs than CEOs, so it is tough to climb the slippery slope.

Same with lawyers, though. The ones that rake in millions didn't get there just by legal brilliance. There is a lot of politics involved.