National Jurist - November 2007 - (Page 25)

over for additional years beyond undergraduate. • Law schools have not kept pace with grants and scholarships at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Meanwhile, tuition costs have increased year over year, leaving more of the burden on students to pay for more of their education than ever before. • Law schools are eager to keep their ratings high, and they may offer more merit funds to well-positioned students who otherwise could afford to foot the whole bill. This leaves less money in the pot for those with genuine financial need. You don’t have to be a mathematics major to see the disconnect between costs and income. The law profession is still lucrative as compared to the national average salary, but it is not the pot of gold that some students may have anticipated. Leipold. “When you look at a lawyer’s salary, there’s a large valley in the middle. Most people cluster around $40,000 to $50,000 and only a few sit at the high end.” And don’t think that where you work is going to make a difference in terms of your debt load. Studies like “After the JD” show that average debt levels are fairly constant across employment settings. That means that lawyers who earn only $40,000 at public interest jobs typically have the same debt load as new attorneys at the largest law firms. Those students who are fortunate enough to land one of the higher paying, private-practice jobs may face unexpected challenges, Hanson said. For example, a graduate celebrating that coveted first-year associate’s job in New York City could be shocked to learn they face a tax rate of about 50 percent. This rate includes state and federal taxes as well as a sizable city wage tax. So that whopper income of $160,000 suddenly drops to about $80,000. But imagine the scenario of the graduate who What about those $160,000 salaries? News stories have recently trumpeted the increase in starting salaries at the nation’s largest law firms. Bidding wars, it seems, have pushed up the starting salaries to as high as $160,000 a year. But, the news is more sizzle than steak for the average law student. “Although salaries at the largest firms have been growing considerably over time, those jobs aren’t that abundant,” Hanson said. “A small minority of those who graduate from law school will actually be competing for those (six-figure salary) jobs,” Hanson said. “The reality is most of the students who graduate and enter the profession will earn substantially less than that.” The average starting salary for new graduates is $62,000, according to recent surveys by NALP, the association for legal career professionals. In fact, NALP recently reported that just 14 percent of the Class of 2006 had salaries that were either $135,000 or $145,000, among the highest in the nation. Far more — some 42 percent — earned $55,000 or less. NALP also found the medians for jobs in government and as judicial clerks increased modestly but remained considerably lower, at $48,000 and $46,500, respectively. The median for public interest jobs remained at $40,000. “Nobody makes the median,” said NALP Executive Director James G. Training Lawyers for the Global Economy The John Marshall Law School in Chicago offers a 24-credit Master of Laws (LLM) Program in International Business and Trade Law More than 40 course offerings Experienced faculty of U.S. and European practitioners Flexible scheduling Interactive, practical courses Two-semester track available Externship with a law firm or corporation Convenient location in the heart of downtown Chicago For additional information, visit our website at www.jmls.edu/international.html or call 312.360.2659. ® CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND TRADE LAW 315 S. Plymouth Court | Chicago, Illinois 60604 USA November 2007 THE NATIONAL JURIST 25 http://chinaprogram.tjsl.edu http://chinaprogram.tjsl.edu http://www.jmls.edu/international.html http://www.jmls.edu/international.html

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of National Jurist - November 2007

National Jurist - November 2007 Contents Disturbing the Peace For the Record Blogs: The Death-knell for Law Reviews? Chemerinsky Heads UC-Irvine Ave Maria Dispute Raises ABA Inquiry John Marshall Establishes Veterans Clinic The Firm Report The Paper Chase Chronicles Law School Rankings at Math's Mercy Academic Freedom Called into Question St. Thomas Students Choose ‘Quality of Life’ Experience The Hidden Debt Crisis The Global Frontier International Education has to be a Part of Any Legal Education Employment Defender Career Hotline Off the Bench

National Jurist - November 2007

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