Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 15:27     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

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")
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 15:22     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

I earned that as a first year associate
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 15:22     Subject: Re:What type of attorney earns $128,000?

1. Associates in mid law/regional firms
2. Federal government attorneys
3. Some (but not all) small firm attorneys with certain niches
4. In-house (lower rung in a large market, possibly higher up in lower cost of living areas)
5. I bet someone doing title/real estate transactions might make around this
6. Independent contractor-type working part-time for a prior biglaw employer or similar gig situation

That said, the spread of attorney salaries are heavily bimodal. Lots making ~$70k on one end of the spectrum and biglaw on the other.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 15:21     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That's a total normal salary. The ones making more are partners in laws firms/ associates in medium sized to bigger firms and/or government attorneys with a couple of years in.


At least in Maryland, most less experienced attorneys working in state government - prosecutors, public defenders, AAGs - make well under $128,000 per year.


The Maryland Attorney General makes $125,000…. MD government seems to pay their lawyers pretty badly. If the rumor is true that a reason law shifted from an undergrad degree to the JD is so government attorneys could qualify for better pay, then it didn’t work in MD.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:33     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

Staff attorneys for big law firms
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:31     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

There are a gazillion different kinds of attorneys in many different markets. You have your rural town lawyer who hangs up a shingle and takes payment in corn sometimes, your legal aid attorneys who are in it for the service and make next to nothing, you have in house lawyers a small start ups, and you have insurance lawyers and personal injury lawyers who make make nothing until they get a big case every now and then, you have judicial clerks, government lawyers, and then you have Wall Street lawyers, General Counsel at Fortune 500 companies, etc.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:22     Subject: Re:What type of attorney earns $128,000?

A very sad one.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:22     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

Anonymous wrote:According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for a lawyer is $128,000 per year. However, all the attorneys that post here seem to earn significantly more than that.

I understand that salaries vary regionally, so presumably that $128,000 is being dragged down by lower-income areas. Additionally, I understand the bimodal distribution of attorney salaries, i.e. it’s not a bell curve (some earn a lot and some earn a relatively small amount).

However, can you provide an example of DC/MD/VA attorneys that may earn $128,000 per year? What would they do? What type of firm would they work at? What about attorneys that earn *gasp* $95,000 (by definition, some must earn below the median)?


Median is different from mean, which is the average. So, half make less than the median.Likely, DC salaries drive-up the mean, but are not common
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:20     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

Nearly all GS 14 and 13 attorneys in the government.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:20     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

Anonymous wrote:That's a total normal salary. The ones making more are partners in laws firms/ associates in medium sized to bigger firms and/or government attorneys with a couple of years in.


At least in Maryland, most less experienced attorneys working in state government - prosecutors, public defenders, AAGs - make well under $128,000 per year.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:17     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

That's a total normal salary. The ones making more are partners in laws firms/ associates in medium sized to bigger firms and/or government attorneys with a couple of years in.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:15     Subject: Re:What type of attorney earns $128,000?

A GS-14/1 in DC is $126,000. I know a ton of attorney positions that are laddered from GS-11 to GS-14, so for a less experienced attorney in DC in the fed govt, you’re under that median for more than you aren’t.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:14     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

How much would an attorney writing wills and trusts make? Or working at a closing company? I assume maybe $160k?
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:14     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

$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.
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2022 14:12     Subject: What type of attorney earns $128,000?

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for a lawyer is $128,000 per year. However, all the attorneys that post here seem to earn significantly more than that.

I understand that salaries vary regionally, so presumably that $128,000 is being dragged down by lower-income areas. Additionally, I understand the bimodal distribution of attorney salaries, i.e. it’s not a bell curve (some earn a lot and some earn a relatively small amount).

However, can you provide an example of DC/MD/VA attorneys that may earn $128,000 per year? What would they do? What type of firm would they work at? What about attorneys that earn *gasp* $95,000 (by definition, some must earn below the median)?