Presumably it starts well below that, reaching $190K mid-career. And it’s still less than I make as a software engineer with an undergrad state school CS degree that left me only $30K in debt…
Especially since law schools raise tuition to fund LRAPs (programs where the schools cover graduates' student loan payments until forgiveness kicks in). Kind of a win/win for the school and student, assuming they're eligible
It may be helpful to contextualize some of these numbers. I'm a law student at a similarly-ranked law school in a lower-COLA area. Like most of my peers I have a job lined up at a BigLaw firm in NYC which pays $215 base and about $35 in bonuses for a total of $250. This steps up in a rigid scale yearly until partnership (or you burn out and die). The older numbers are pre-covid pay bump which has reset comp, and with consulting bumping I suspect comp may rise again.
It's a substantial capital outlay (even though I don't know anyone paying full sticker) but if you can stomach the work it pays for itself fairly quickly. Happy to give a more detailed breakdown of financials as I suspect there are not many lawyers on HN (I made an account to comment on this).
The problem isn't necessarily the money after. It's affording it as a student. Even if tuition is covered, somebody has to pay living expenses, books, etc.
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[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 43.7 ms ] threadSome of those firms pay over $200k to first-year associates. 7 years later they are likely learning twice that:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/three-to...
[0] https://www.biglawinvestor.com/biglaw-salary-scale/
It's a substantial capital outlay (even though I don't know anyone paying full sticker) but if you can stomach the work it pays for itself fairly quickly. Happy to give a more detailed breakdown of financials as I suspect there are not many lawyers on HN (I made an account to comment on this).