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Written by S. Colin Mabrito
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008 01:30 |
The current cost of attending law school can range anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 dollars. That being the case, there has to be some kind of cost-benefit analysis that goes into one’s decision of whether or not to pursue a law degree. To be sure, a JD is a valuable asset in the working world (though it may sometimes be hard to quantify in numerical terms). However, for most graduates, its financial value is reaped in the long term, rather than in the form of an insanely high entry level salary.
For many aspiring law students, all it takes is one look at the headline in the newspaper saying that the big firms (here, I’m referring to firms with about 200 lawyers or more) have increased their salaries to 160,000 dollars per year plus bonus for new associates. However, this is probably a fairly misleading method of evaluating the possible options.
These high starting salaries combined with stories of plaintiffs’ attorneys who were awarded settlements or judgments of almost mythical proportions make a law degree seem like a winning lotto ticket. Many potential students take the next logical mental step and assume that if they could make 160,000 dollars per year at one of the largest firms, other positions will pay competitively with that figure. Under this model, even in the worst case scenario, the loans that law school would require would be paid off in no time. The reality is that a big firm position simply isn’t the typical law student’s path, and that entry level corporate and midsize firm positions may be more scarce than one might think.
Another reason some potential students are mislead, comes from their reliance on the figures offered by the career services offices of law schools. These figures reflect very high starting salaries on average (of course, it behooves the school to analyze these numbers in the most favorable way possible since this can have a direct effect on the school’s ranking and its applicant pool for the next year). Extremely high salaries have a tendency to skew these numbers. For example, if ten students accept positions with large firms (at approximately 160K) and ten students accept positions with sole practitioners (at approximately 45K), the average salary is 102,500 per year. But this number does not accurately reflect what any specific position would pay (i.e. in the hypothetical, there is no actual job paying 102,500/yr even though that is the average pay).
Applicants should also be wary of how many grads are actually employed at graduation, and not just with the average starting salary of those who are. Additionally, within the group of gainfully employed alumni, there is another issue. Many students will continue the job they had before attending law school or go into a family business, making their statistics less meaningful to the law student pool overall.
In the end, no matter the size of the firm or the field of practice, a law degree does make fiscal sense. Lawyers who work hard, network and play by the rules of professional conduct tend to do very well for themselves in the long run. This is not to say that they all command million or half-million dollar paychecks every year. However, it is to say that the degree opens up a world of financial opportunity, in which a graduate can make a very good living. A JD may be particularly valuable to the earning power of individuals who had college majors in areas like Philosophy, History, English or Political Science (specifically, those areas of study that don’t have the same demand in corporate America as areas like engineering, computer science or accounting).
Most importantly, the cost of law school should not deter the pursuit of a law degree for non-monetary ends. To be sure, there are plenty of great and noble reasons to attend law school. Some lawyers have careers fighting for justice, helping the underprivileged and protecting the rights of citizens. Some also say that the law degree is also becoming the new MBA; helping to advance careers in fields from human resources to tax consulting. It is also noteworthy that a law degree can open doors to social circles that might not have been otherwise accessible. Most of all, it should be remembered that it offers the flexibility and autonomy of starting and running one’s own profitable business, with significant barriers to entry for competitors. Overall, law school is certainly a good investment. However, to keep one’s expectations in line with reality it is necessary to take a critical view of the numbers presented.
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