Job market for lawyers

What's the job market for lawyers? They seem to struugle like everyone else.

 

There are way too many lawyers processed out of law school annually currently for lots of reasons I won't go into; this has continued for decades. So yes, lawyers do struggle like everyone else. Some fields of the law have been in a continuing drastic depression since 2007 much worse than the general economic woes. Certain areas of the law are extremely cyclical.

 

if you are at the top 5% of the class no problem...the bottom half will be prosecutors or public defenders...

 

From what I've seen, maybe 15% will make it into a top-tier law firm and be pulling in $150,000 after five years. The economy since 2007 has certainly had an effect on the demand for newly graduated lawyers at these top law firms, so now it is much harder to get these coveted jobs. I'd say maybe only 7% will make it into these top firms now.

Another 5% will eventually be hired by companies and earn maybe around $80,000 to $120,000. Sometimes substantially more but that is rarer.

25% will just not be able to make it and will have to find some other career path.

A few lawyers become very enterprising and use their skills and contacts (and sometimes money) to enter another line of business or sales, and become very successful.

Probably around 40% of lawyers just end up living a middle class life. Comfortable, but not rich. These could be trial lawyers. Public defenders typically have to work 70 hours a week and are typically not really compensated for all the work they have to put in.

Yes, there are too many lawyers. But there is a reason there are too many, because so many people are seeking a simple route to a high-paying career. Not all of those entering this field will be able to get those high-paying positions they imagine. It can end up being a lot of work.
Some lawyers now have had to take up work as legal assistants to other lawyers because there was not work for them elsewhere. This was during the depths of the recession (2007-2009) and I expect things have improved a little bit since then.

 

It would be interesting to see the stats on lawyers who:

a) didn't go to Barry O'Toole's Country College for the Intellectually Challenged - a lot of law degrees are from places which don't really inspire much faith in career prospects

b) got a decent GPA.

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Something tells me those students would have done rather well for themselves. Any old fart can get a law degree.

 

GPA doesn't much matter unless you're aiming to go into one of those top-tier firms.

I'm aware of one lawyer who runs a practice in construction tort law. Basically there was a bunch of shoddy construction by real estate developers trying to make quick money and 10-15 years down the line that shoddy construction begins causing problems. This lawyer has an income of about $200-300 thousand, depending on the year, hires a secretary and two legal assistants. He came from a poor family.

He still has to share the office space with another lawyer to keep costs down, the rent is $60,000 a year.
Works very hard, 55 to 70 hours a week. Running a practice takes up your whole life. His former partner had a heart attack, had to retire early.

 

I had considered going into law after I graduated political science but was advised not to because of the job market. Basically it's over saturated and there is little work to be found.

 

Top law firms and only 150k? Gee, it's that bad?

A lot of programmers can earn that figure after 3 to 5 years.

 

Top law firms paid 120K to start and 150K in the second year when I worked for one years ago, no idea about now. But yeah, law school is one of the most fraudulent branches of the gov-edu-union-contractor-grantee-MSM Complex. If a private sector consumer oriented business advertised results as fraudulently as law schools do, they'd be shut down, fined out of existence, maybe even jailed. The people who earn the most in the law are those who figure out how to make a career bullying mostly innocent businesses with lawsuits like one poster's construction litigation acquaintance.

Oh, just remember 90% of that type of lawyer are Democrats btw, maybe even the Dems largest contributors, so when you vote Democrat, you are in bed with the scumbag frivolous litigators that drive costs up for everything and everyone.

 

Not anymore.

Yeah sure, $200,000 salaries for programmers use to not be that uncommon. In the 90's.
Since then they have brought in tens of thousands of programmers from India on H1B visas. That has really depressed the wages in this career field, especially for the entry level programmers.

 

I think it depends on where you live and what you practice. I am guessing the not very sexy divorce, bankruptcy, and real estate areas of practice do well enough in most places.

 

Personal injury lawyers... Those are about the only law firms in the US that have commercials on tv.
A bankruptcy attorney is paid a fee for service. A divorce attorney by the hour. Neither entail a settlement a negotiated commission percentage is made on.

 

That is because there is so much competition. A lot of insurance companies basically own law firms so it doesn't cost them much to litigate cases as it once did so they can drag these things out. Decent money but it is sporadic so you would need a large volume of cases to get paid regular--thus the ads

 

Lawyers with a client suing in hopes of a big settlement advertise. There are no commercials from law firms soliciting businesses. None.

 

Not true at all. I see just as many tax settlement ads on TV as I see class-action "Were you are someone you love injured/killed/sickened by...."

 

Injured, killed, sickened...Personal injury. Settlement. Their client is suing for money their lawyer negotiated commission on. Class action lawsuits are a group suing for monetary compensation.

 

It's not as bad as some make it out to be. The problem is that too many melenials are spoiled little (*)(*)(*)(*)s. There was a recent melenial (*)(*)(*)(*)(*) fest article by some spoiled little piece of (*)(*)(*)(*) complaining about how she couldn't find a job out of law school. Oh she talked about how much leg work she had been doing. She had applied all over the Bay area and still had found a job.

Notice the problem with the little (*)(*)(*)(*) melenial. She had applied all over the Bay area. Little (*)(*)(*)(*) felt she was entitled to live and work in the Bay area. Sorry spoiled little (*)(*)(*)(*)s that is not how you build a career. When you come out of school you got to be willing to take any (*)(*)(*)(*)ing job any (*)(*)(*)(*)ing where to get real experience and build your resume'.

Your profession is not a hobby. You don't get to declare what job you want where you want.

 

See that the problem no it doesn't. You have to be willing to live anywhere and do anything when you first get oylut of school.

 

Totally missed the part about Tax settlements you did. Must be where you live. We have lawyer advertise on TV for DUI's, Criminal cases, SS disability, tax settlements, and tort claims. Print ads tend to be bankruptcy, PI, divorce, or disability and splatterings of criminal. Real estate lawyers don't need to advertise because they generally are in the pipeline with certain banks/brokers/real estate firms that guide their customers to them.

 

Not really. "Live anywhere" is a mistake unless you are looking to get picked up by a national firm. If you go to school in an East Coast State and then try to sit for the California bar, you will be at a distinct disadvantage or vice versa. Even if you take a crash course rote memory bar prep class, you still are not going to be up to snuff in terms of actually practicing in many areas on a day to day basis. If you wait until you get out of law school to have your job lined up, you have made a huge mistake. You should have been working in law or a field related to your concentration while in law school.

 

You are confusing speech. Yes you should have a job lined up but you need to make it a national search. I had application out as far north as barrow alaska and as far south as key West. If you want your job you be a boby don't become a professional.

The problem I always here with these spoiled (*)(*)(*)(*) melenials is they don't want to move.

 

Why did you need to look so far and wide? Why weren't you recruited by a law firm while in law school? Why didn't you already have a job working in a law firm while you were in law school?

A friend of mine was near the top of her class in law school at a decent enough university and it took her a year to get a job as a title abstractor and another year to actually find a small law firm to hire her. She waited too long to find marketable experience by just assuming someone would hire her just because she graduated and had good marks and she had no interest in starting her own practice.

 

These criminal ads you refer to, what is their pitch?

 

Along the lines of "We represent clients for misdemeanors and felonies in all courts, including federal courts. We have 5 full time investigators. We have 6 Billion years of experience defending criminal prosecutions.Have you been charged with a crime? Call us today for your free consultation."

They can't really pitch much because of the ethical rules in my state relating to lawyer advertising. It is something our state bar has become very proactive on. There are a couple PI firms that operate in our region that get smacked by the state bar periodically for their ads, so most firms tread lightly. There are only a couple areas in which one can hold themselves out as a specialist so unless you are one of those state-approved specialist in one of those few areas, then anything that tries to paint you as anything special gets a close eye. Put the word "expert" in your ad, and the bar will be knocking on your door in the middle of the night asking for your bar card.

 

Comedy gold. PI and bar?
You can take out any ad and claim to be an expert at anything you'd like. There is no legal criteria for what constitutes an expert.
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