What type of attorney earns $128,000?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$128k is pretty normal for most of the country. People in DC do tend to earn more. People on DCUM love to inflate their salaries and seniority.

Even adults like to compare sizes.

[Anonymous]

Me. On Cap Hill.

[Anonymous]

Medians are an extremely unhelpful number here given the bimodality of attorney salaries. Actually tons of attorneys are making far far less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An attorney, their first year at the firm, will earn less than an experienced long-term administrative assistant (someone who decades ago would have been "their secretary")

This may be true at some types of firms, but not at others. At my firm (market-paying big law), first year associates are paid $215k plus bonus, and it goes up from there. Even the longest-tenured admin assistant isn’t making that much. But it’s really only big law firms and some in-house positions that pay in that range. It’s very common for associates to take a significant pay cut when they leave a firm to go in-house.

[Anonymous]

Loser lawyers gs

[Anonymous]

Some attorneys at non-profits or public interest law firms are earning this, if their primary competition is federal government employment. I also think that would be a good salary for someone at one of the suburban law firms doing family law, estates, basic criminal defense (not white color or high end druglords), personal injury, etc. basically all the lawyers who aren’t representing the super rich or Fortune 500 companies.

[Anonymous]

USPTO attorneys

[Anonymous]

Every municipal, county, state, or federal attorney is there, or under that amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m at a midsize firm in a midsize city, and we pay our first years $145k. I’m a junior partner and make $300k plus bonus.

And they're overpaid and you are underpaid.

[Anonymous]

The ABA reports that last year a record number of law school grads joined law firms with over 250 lawyers. The number was 18 percent. And, of course, they don't all stick around.

If at least 82 percent of lawyers are working outside of large law firms, the $128k number makes sense.

[Anonymous]

I also noticed people here are either directors or VPs. I am old and just made manager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An attorney, their first year at the firm, will earn less than an experienced long-term administrative assistant (someone who decades ago would have been "their secretary")

That's certainly not the case in Biglaw, although I suppose it could be true other places.