Career Salaries High At Law Schools

Law Schools Dominate Midpoint Career Salary Rankings

Some superb news came out for law students, lawyers, and future LSAT takers everywhere this week. That is, at career midpoint (professionals with at least 10 years of experience), being a lawyer is a pretty lucrative profession. In fact, if an attorney has graduated from the right law schools, law could be, statistically speaking, the most lucrative career around. Of course, it all starts with the T14.
Harvard Law School grads earn more on average at career midpoint than any other law school, according to a recently released PayScale report. They also earn more at career midpoint than graduates from any other U.S. graduate school. At career midpoint, Harvard Law grads earn about $201,000 a year. Not too shabby.
The online survey polled 1.4 million professionals at career midpoint from more than 600 graduate schools. The good news for the law profession is seven of the ten highest median salaries were from law schools. Another unique fact was eight out of the top 17 schools for median career midpoint income were from California. Law applicants everywhere, it is time to start looking to the West!
In fact, the three highest average midpoint salaries were all found at law schools (Harvard, Emory [$200,600], and Santa Clara [$197,700], respectively). They edged out the next school, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. UCLA Law ($182,900) and Pepperdine Law ($181,600) squeezed in at #5 and #6, ahead of Harvard’s Business School. Georgetown Law ($180,800) was the next school, with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Columbia Law ($177,100) finishing up the top 10.
After Columbia, the University of Southern California ($173,700), Berkeley ($172,000), and Fordham ($167,200) rounded out the top 10 in the law school specific category. Five of the top 10 law schools were California-based, four from the East Coast and the two from the South round out the pack.
Still, this is for schools in the upper two tiers of law school rankings. It is not congruent to (or realistic to) all law schools. Sure, if you go to one of the above schools and end up with a nice job, it is very possible to make that much or more. But it is certainly not the case with all schools and all graduates.
For a complete list of the reporting grad schools, go here.
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Sources: Washington Post, PayScale