Recruiter Predicts 5.4% Leap in Lawyer Starting Pay
Average starting pay for lawyers is projected to rise 5.4 percent next year, according to a legal recruiting agency.
First-year associates at large law firms with 75 or more lawyers will see the biggest gain, with base annual starting salaries expected to rise about 9.1 percent and range from about $112,000 to $137,000, according to a press release by Robert Half Legal. The legal placement company says its salary projections are based on thousands of job orders and placements handled by its account executives.
Salaries for more experienced lawyers at large law firms are projected to be between $114,000 and $147,500 per year for those with up to three years of experience, an 8.2 percent increase, and $167,500 to $234,000 for those with more than 10 years of experience, a 7.9 percent increase.
Much of the press attention has focused on the biggest law firms that pay first-year lawyers as much as $160,000.
Charles Volkert, executive director for Robert Half Legal, said in the press release that a competitive hiring environment is boosting salaries. He said the environment is fueled by a decline in law school graduates and a need for lawyers with specialized expertise.
His observation may surprise some law grads who are facing a tough job market, according to recent news accounts.
This year the median starting salary for first-year associates was $68,000 at firms of two to 10 lawyers and $130,000 at firms of more than 250 lawyers, according to a survey on starting salaries by NALP, a national association for legal career professionals.
But median starting pay for lawyers who didn’t go to work for law firms was only $46,000 for prosecutors in 2006 and $38,000 for legal services lawyers.
