What Was Your Starting Salary at Your First Law Job?
Controversy and debate over BigLaw starting salaries has been around far longer ABAJournal.com has been here to report it.
Some firms, as layoffs and deferrals and salary freezes went on promised to bring salaries back to peak levels, and some of those firms have already done it. Other firms have answered the $160,000 question by cutting first-year salaries, kicking lockstep to the curb and not looking back.
Many of our readers who are outside of BigLaw - or who started in BigLaw before the late 2000s - can’t relate to these starting salaries and are split on whether newbie associates deserve them. (And on whether the BigLaw lifestyle is worth the high rate of pay.)
So why don’t you tell us: What was your starting salary at your first law job? Do you think the pay was fair for the work you did? Be sure and provide some context by noting what the position was, the year you accepted it, and maybe even the city where you worked.
Answer in the comments below.
Read answers to the Aughties’ final question of the week: How Has Your Law Career Evolved This Decade?
Featured answer:
Posted by Poindexter: “Ten years ago, I was on my second marriage and working as a narcotics detective with limited to no backup and making $10 per hour. I had a judge argue with me over detaining a juvenile with a pocket full of crack when he said: ‘If you think you’re so damn smart, why don’t you go to law school?’ Flash forward 10 years … I am on my fourth marriage, working as a solo practitioner defense attorney still with limited to no backup, but I’m making six figures. I am running for judge in 2010, and life couldn’t be better!”
