Many factors determine your starting salary after completing law school.
Factors determining the starting salary for law school students include location, size of the destination law firm, as well as the law school from which the student matriculates. Law school students can begin prospecting for their eventual employer as early as their first year. Summer associate programs provide a source of income for law students as well as valuable time for both the firm and the student to evaluate the likelihood she or he will seek employment with the firm after graduation.
Location and Firm
The average starting salary for a law school graduate depends heavily upon the location and size of the law firm he or she chooses to join. Law firms in larger cities such as New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles provide the opportunity for a new lawyer to earn greater salaries than do firms in moderately sized and small cities. As of 2011, first year salaries for associates of New York City's private firms can expect an annual salary between $105,000 and $160,000. Washington D.C. firms pay first year lawyers $105,000 to $165,000 in annual salary. Medium-sized cities offer a slightly lower scale for the major law firms. Pittsburgh, PA major law firms pay between $80,000 and $135, 000 to first year associates. By comparison, smaller cities such as Billings, MT and Wichita, KS pay first year graduates between $55,000 and $78,000 per year.
Law School Credentials
Securing the highest salary level at a major law firm is dependent upon a graduate's academic standing and the caliber of law school she or he attends. Top-tier national law schools attract recruiters from across the country in search of qualified future associates. A student can reasonably expect to have an opportunity to land a position at a top paying lawn firm in a major city if he or she performs well (compared to other same-class students) at one of the upper echelon law schools. U.S. News and World Reports lists an annual law school ranking and considers the number of students graduating from each school and their employment statistics. Generally, the highest ranking law schools produce lawyers who are paid higher salaries than average students from lower-tier schools. Students with exceptional academic credentials and other experience can secure a high paying associate position even if she or he attended a lower ranked school, though the data shows fewer numbers of mid-to-lower ranked school's graduates earn placement at the highest paying firms in the country.
Summer Associateship
During a student's law school career he will have the opportunity to work in the summer at a law firm as a summer associate. Summer associates are chosen by various law firms as a way to orient the student to the practical application of his education as well as evaluate his worth as a potential hire. During the summer associateship (generally lasting 10 weeks) the student is paid. The highest paying firms for law school graduates are the highest paying for summer associate programs. For example; Jenner and Block in Chicago, IL pays first year associates $160,000 per year. Summer associates at Jenner and Block earn $2,400 per week while they are still in law school. A student working at a major law firm can expect their summer associateship to pay in the range of $1,000 to $2,500 per week, as of 2011.
Bonuses
Bonuses can make up a substantial portion of a law school graduate's yearly earnings. Bonuses are awarded to associates for billable hours booked and pre-associateship experience. A common standard for first year associates receiving higher bonuses is having worked as a judicial clerk prior to joining the firm. Law school students can secure a clerkship between their years in law school or after graduation and prior to joining the firm. The most select group of judicial clerks are those lawyers who clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Supreme Court clerks can command initial bonuses exceeding their first year salary.
Public Practice
Public practice lawyers can expect to receive dramatically smaller salaries generally and especially as a first year lawyer. Law school graduates who choose to work in the public sector, in positions such as local and district courts as associate district attorneys or court-appointed defense counsel, are paid as low as $28,000 per year. Court-appointed defense attorneys in San Francisco, among the highest paid public lawyers in the country, are paid just over $90,000 annually. To contrast, a private sector attorney in San Francisco can earn as much as $165,000 plus bonuses in their first year as an associate as of 2011.
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