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How much money do young lawyers make & save?
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November 9th, 2009Income, Law School, Retirement
I occassionally like to head over to NetworthIQ to see the kind of money young lawyers are making. After all, I am about to graduate in mere months. My soon to be peers, it appears, have really nice incomes and a whole lot of student debt. In fact, the average networth of a young lawyer between the age of 25-29 is rather low. I first focused on the legal sector, then narrowed it down to those with their doctorates so as to exclude paralegals. Then I gathered all the data for the 25-29 age group. I came up with 20 young lawyers between 25-29. They all have decent to really good incomes. Of the 20 young lawyers, 9 were making six figures. The highest income was in the $250,000+ range while the lowest was in the $40,000-49,000 range. And the average networth was…drum roll please… -$22,651. Yes, that is a negative netowrth. Yikes. Only 4 out of 16 or 20% of attorney’s actually had a positive networth.
- Total young attorney’s with debts: 16 of the 20 or 80%
- Average Income: Between $101,000 and $126,499
- Average debt: $84,942.93
- Average networth: -$22,651
This is quite a small sample size so, this is not exactly a scientific examination of the networth of young attorney’s. But, it is very clear that young attorney’s are burdened with a lot of student loans (according to several of the profiles). If their networth is the negative then after going to school for a very long time it is difficult for them to move onto other adult life stages such as purchasing a home, starting a family, saving and investing for retirement etc…
This little exercise reinforces my decision to go to a school from where I believed I could graduate without debt. I wouldn’t want to have a debt load of even $22,651 to carry just as my career is starting. Graduating into a recession means that I will be looking for a job past graduation if I want to hold out for something that I am actually interested in. It’s good to know that when I graduate I will be with the 20% and will actually have a positive networth.
NetWorthIQ: Networth of Young Lawyers
Tags: average income for lawyers, law school debt, law school student loans, lawyers just starting out, networth, networth of lawyers, young lawers25-29
250,000 +
Legal
MAPhD
MD
$543,978
25-29
150,000 – 199,999
Legal
MAPhD
IL
$175,250
25-29
200,000 – 249,999
Legal
MAPhD
VA
$172,120
25-29
150,000 – 199,999
Legal
MAPhD
NY
$14,719
25-29
60,000 – 69,999
Legal
MAPhD
($14,095)
25-29
100,000 – 149,999
Legal
MAPhD
MN
($29,900)
25-29
70,000 – 79,999
Legal
MAPhD
CA
($30,070)
25-29
60,000 – 69,999
Legal
MAPhD
PA
($31,345)
25-29
70,000 – 79,999
Legal
MAPhD
NY
($31,721)
35-39
50,000 – 59,999
Legal
MAPhD
TX
($38,505)
25-29
150,000 – 199,999
Legal
MAPhD
NY
($79,679)
25-29
50,000 – 59,999
Legal
MAPhD
NC
($80,446)
25-29
50,000 – 59,999
Legal
MAPhD
MS
($81,956)
25-29
70,000 – 79,999
Legal
MAPhD
NY
($85,345)
25-29
50,000 – 59,999
Legal
MAPhD
TX
($128,065)
25-29
100,000 – 149,999
Legal
MAPhD
OH
($133,890)
25-29
150,000 – 199,999
Legal
MAPhD
NY
($135,238)
25-29
150,000 – 199,999
Legal
MAPhD
NY
($135,646)
25-29
40,000 – 49,999
Legal
MAPhD
OH
($160,643)
25-29
50,000 – 59,999
Legal
MAPhD
PA
($162,543)
7 responses to “How much money do young lawyers make & save?” 
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Intersting!
I’ve read that salaries for lawyers out of law school fall into two camps – those who are doing BigLaw for $160K a year or those who are scrimping on contract work for $30/hour or public sector work for $50K (not enough to pay off the mountain of debt).
So that the “average” salary for lawyers is pretty misleading because the BigLaw folks pull that number way up and makes people think that all lawyers make a ton of money.
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@WellHeeled
Well said! The average income for attorney’s is completely misleading because your starting salary varies widely depending on whether you are working for Big Law, Small Law, Government, Clerkship, NonProfit or Contract. It seems that most of the people using Networth IQ who set their profiles to public view are Big Firm associates and of course, we don’t know if they have updated their profiles recently since Big Law has been doing lay offs.
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Interesting post!
It’s crazy how committed one has to be in order to work in the law and medical fields. From what I understand- you have to start freshman year in college making good grades and taking difficult courses, follow up your undergrad with 3+ years of very difficult schooling, and spend another few years working insane hours to establish yourself in the field. My heart breaks for the people who go through all that just to find that they actually hate the career they’ve chosen and can’t quit because of the massive debt that they are in.It sounds like you chose a smart path to your degree!
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These days more and more law schools (operated for profit unlike the traditional nonprofit law schools) are being approved by the ABA so a whole lot of people who wouldn’t have gone to law school are in law school. But the cost of law school remains very high even with the increasing number of law schools. Sadly a lot of graduates land in an oversaturated legal market with a whole lot of student loans.
Also, its very hard to understand what its like to be a lawyer since most of us don’t come across lawyers the way we come across and interact with doctors, for instance. Being a lawyer is very labor intensive. Its not a career for everyone. I am not even entirely sure if its the right career for me, but I am glad that I can make that decision without loans hindering any decision I may make.
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I almost became a lawyer. I even had the LSAT test date. I never went through with it. My passion has always been personal finance. Good luck with your last year in law school.
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Excellent way to go about it. I have a friend who graduated with a law degree and then went back for master’s in law. He deferred his $100,000+ loans and they have since ballooned to almost $200K. All that money and he’s not even practicing. Good for you for avoiding that trap.
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Young Lawyer April 12th, 2010 at 03:46
I am actually one of the young lawyers you have profiled. Since November 2009 I have increased my net worth and make my student loan payments. Having a high income means that I can aggressively pay down my student loan debt, max out my 401K, take great vacations and pay for my wedding next year. I plan on being in positive territory very soon.
And I do believe that taking on debt to attend a better school allowed me to obtain my current job. And I’m doing something that I really like!
WellHeeled November 10th, 2009 at 12:52