XAll compensation data shown are gross, national 10th to 90th percentile ranges. Pay can vary greatly by location. To view local data, take the PayScale survey.
XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).
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$44,768 - $167,250
Country: United States | Currency: USD | Updated: 30 May 2012 | Individuals Reporting: 9,881
» Which jobs, cities and industries are seeing wages recover post-recession? Track the latest compensation trends with The PayScale Index Q1 2012 results.
Advise clients in business transactions, claim liablility, advisability of prosecuting or defending lawsuits or legal rights and obligations. Analyze and interpret laws, rulings and regulations with probable case outcomes for individuals and businesses. Gather evidence to formulate defense or to initiate legal actions; evaluate findings and develop strategies and arguments for presentation of cases. Represent clients in court or before government agencies, present and summarize cases to judges and juries. Select jurors, argue motions, meet with judges and question witnesses during the course of a trial.
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." If you've entered law school, chances are at least one literary wag has quoted you this line from Shakespeare's Henry the Sixth, Part II. Shakespeare may not have appreciated the finer points of legal practice, but his disapproval hasn't stopped thousands of students from completing law degrees and pursuing Attorney Jobs each year. In addition to all the lawyer jokes they care to hear, prospective lawyers spend their law school years learning the skills and making the connections necessary to land the lawyer jobs they've worked so hard for. With the current economic downturn, many people are considering law school as an opportunity for career change. Earning a Law Degree can lead to numerous employment options - working as an attorney is just one of many potentially lucrative career choices. For busy professionals considering a career change, or anyone seeking the flexibility of an online degree program, one option is to earn an Online Law Degree. Whether enrolling in a traditional or online law degree program, aspiring lawyers can expect at least a few hours of hard work on the road to earning those high lawyer salaries. Hoping that all that hard work will pay off, law students all want to know: what are lawyer starting salaries like?
As with many careers that require a graduate degree, lawyer starting salaries are typically fairly high. The Lawyer Starting Salary chart shows that for a lawyer, average starting salary ranges from around $40,000 to around $90,000. Compare lawyer starting salaries with the Starting Salary of a Physical Therapist - a profession that also requires extensive training, but no degree - and you can see that there are definite benefits to spending that time in law school. However, a lawyer's average starting salary is just a jumping-off point; after 20 years of experience, the average salary for a lawyer goes way up.
Lawyer salaries are determined by a number of factors, such as the kind of law being practiced. Comparing the average salary of a lawyer by practice area shows that Corporate Lawyer Jobs currently offer the highest average annual salary for a lawyer, followed by lawyer jobs in litigation & appeals. Viewing PayScale's Salary Data for Attorney Jobs by Industry reveals other areas offering lucrative annual salaries to lawyers. When it comes to location, big-city lawyers are in luck. Researching Lawyer Salaries by City, we can see that the average salary for a lawyer tends to be higher in cities like Washington, San Francisco and New York.
Real Attorney Jobs: Lawyer Salary Story
Researching the average salary of a lawyer can only provide so much information about what it's really like to follow a legal career path. To get a real-life Career Description for a Lawyer, read the Salary Stories interview with environmental lawyer Stu Flashman. He explains how he chose environmental law over corporate lawyer jobs and offers insight on what to expect from this challenging career.
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