Law by the Numbers

How much money can you make in different practice areas?

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chart by stephen ravenscraft

Chart by Stephen Ravenscraft

This summer the ABA, along with Glassdoor, Salary.com, LawyerEdu.org and the National Association for Law Placement published statistics about attorney salaries by practice area. And the makers of Practice Panther law practice management software combined the data to create this list. They suggest it might be useful to law students debating which practice area to choose. (It can also bring joy or jealousy to those already in a certain areas.)

                                                                       
Practice areaAverage salary
Intellectual property$155,037
Health Care   146,590
Real estate     118,000
Bankruptcy 113,000
Corporate       98,244
Criminal defense       78,500
Personal Injury 73,000
Family and divorce 71,336
Civil Rights 69,000
Immigration   62,500

Find links to more data and other practice stats at abajournal.com/lawbythenumbers.

This article originally appeared in the September 2016 issue of the ABA Journal with this headline: “Practice Makes Profit: Where you hang a shingle can affect the jingle.”

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