What kind of lawyers make millions?
As of Nov 22, 2021, the average annual pay for a Corporate Lawyer in the United States is $163,166 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $78.45 an hour. This is the equivalent of $3,138/week or $13,597/month.
The Average Hourly Fee for Attorneys in New Jersey
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $97,000 and as low as $20,000, the majority of Entry Level Lawyer salaries currently range between $33,500 (25th percentile) to $50,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $72,000 annually across the United States.
The average annual pay for a Lawyer in Chicago is $101,654 an year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approxim...
San Francisco, CA($128,399)Fremont, CA($124,987)San Jose, CA($120,275)Jackson, WY($119,072)Oakland, CA($119,046)Hayward, CA($116,776)Vallejo, CA($1...
Corporate Lawyer($149,875)Family Lawyer($124,766)Commercial Lawyer($109,253)Technology Lawyer($105,896)Business Lawyer($102,297)
The average monthly pay for a Lawyer in Boydton is $101,654 a month.
San Francisco, CA($128,399)Fremont, CA($124,987)San Jose, CA($120,275)Jackson, WY($119,072)Oakland, CA($119,046)Hayward, CA($116,776)Vallejo, CA($1...
Corporate Lawyer($149,875)Family Lawyer($124,766)Commercial Lawyer($109,253)Technology Lawyer($105,896)Business Lawyer($102,297)
As of Feb 17, 2022, the average monthly pay for a Lawyer in the United States is $6,729 a month.
We’ve identified 10 cities where the typical salary for a Lawyer job is above the national average. Topping the list is San Francisco, CA, with Fremont, CA and San Jose, CA close behind in the second and third positions.
We found at least five jobs related to the Lawyer job category that pay more per year than a typical Lawyer salary. Top examples of these roles include: Online Corporate Lawyer, Commercial Lawyer, and Technology Lawyer.
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the 2018 median pay for lawyers in the U.S. was $120,910. That comes out to an hourly pay of $58.13, assuming a 40-hour work week. As most lawyers will tell you, though, the typical work week at a law firm tends to be a lot longer than 40 hours.
According to U.S. News, the top-paying state for lawyers isn’t a state – it’s the District of Columbia. There, the annual mean wage for lawyers is $189,560. However, four of the top five highest-paying cities are all in California, with San Jose at the top with $198,100.
As most lawyers will tell you, though, the typical work week at a law firm tends to be a lot longer than 40 hours. According to 2017 data from U.S. New and World Report, the average salary for lawyers in the U.S. is $141,890.
One of the biggest determinant of salary for lawyers is the type of employer they work for. Lawyers who clock in and out for big corporate law firms will command a much higher salary than those who work as public defenders. Not all lawyers represent individual clients in court.
That degree won’t come cheap: The American Bar Association reports that law students rack up an average student debt burden of $84,000 if they graduate from a public school and $122,158 if they graduate from a private school. Some of these graduates have loans from their undergraduate education, too.
According to the BLS, the metro area with the highest concentration of lawyers is the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro area. But the city with the second-highest concentration of lawyers might surprise you – it’s Tallahassee, FL. Other metro areas with a high concentration of lawyers are: Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA and New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ.
Becoming a lawyer is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, but can lead to a financially and intellectually rewarding career. If you can succeed in law school and get good jobs and internships along the way, you’ll have a good shot at a high salary. After you’ve successfully paid off your student loans, you can start stashing some of that money away for a peaceful retirement.
According to the job website PayScale, an entry-level lawyer typically averages $62,902 per year, or $5,241 per month, including bonuses and added compensation. After five years on the job, the average lawyer salary jumps to $97,482 per year, or $8,123 per month. A late-career attorney with at least 20 years of experience annually averages $128,076 per year, or $10,673 per month.
Becoming an attorney generally entails earning a bachelor’s degree, completing a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from an accredited law school and passing the state bar examination. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, average lawyer monthly salary ranges are around $12,409 , or $ 148,910 per year, as of 2020. However, earnings vary dramatically according to specialization, experience and geographic location.
The Bay Area, including San Francisco, Santa Clara, Oakland, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Hayward, tops the list of the highest-paying cities for lawyers in 2020 with average salaries ranging from $201,920 to $231,610 per year. Next, was the Washington-Arlington,-Alexandria metropolitan area, paying attorneys an average annual salary of $186,070 .
The best-paying industry for lawyers was petroleum manufacturing, in which they made $17,980 per month on average, according to the bureau. Other high-paying industries for attorneys included motor vehicle manufacturing and specialty hospitals.
The state that employed the most lawyers was California, where they were paid $13,047 monthly on average. It was followed closely by New York, where lawyers were paid $12,590 per month on average. The best-paying "state" for attorneys was the District of Columbia, where they made $13,420 per month on average.
A lawyer’s career interests and work setting also factor into earning income power. Lawyers in private practice are more likely to earn a higher lawyer monthly salary than those in government jobs, as suggested by PayScale salary survey data.
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Lawyers working in the state of Alabama in May 2019 earned an annual mean wage of $114,240. Wages for other metropolitan areas in the state include:
Lawyers employed in Alaska earned an annual mean wage of $115,260. Around the state, attorney salaries were:
Arizona’s lawyers brought home an annual mean salary of $136,170. Lawyers in Arizona’s cities earned:
Lawyers working in the state of Arkansas garnered an annual mean wage of $94,000. Arkansas’ cities paid attorneys the following salaries:
Attorneys in California averaged an annual mean wage of $173,970, making them the second-highest paid lawyers in the nation as of May 2019. Around the Golden State, salaries for lawyers are as follows:
Colorado’s lawyers acquired an annual mean salary of $150,630. In Colorado’s cities, attorneys earned:
The average salary for a lawyer is $5,233 per month in the United States. 291 salaries reported, updated at February 18, 2022.
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If you’re unsure about what salary is appropriate for a lawyer, visit Indeed's Salary Calculator to get a free, personalized pay range based on your location, industry and experience.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average pay for a lawyer is $120,910 per year.
Additionally, a lawyer’s annual salary will heavily depend on the years of experience they’ve acquired practicing law , with the payscale steadily increasing as lawyers are able to charge higher premiums for their legal advice. Salary increases at large law firms have outpaced the rest of the legal market.
While there’s no official definition for “Biglaw,” it generally refers to the nation’s largest law firms as well as small- and medium-sized firms that pay at the market rate. Biglaw firms base salary on your law school class using the Cravath scale.
The demanding work environment is one reason Biglaw firms offer summer associate programs. Taking advantage of the program can introduce you to the environment and give you a taste of what you might expect as a new hire. However, much like the field of Biglaw, summer associate spots are highly competitive.
Fields such as Intellectual property, medical malpractices, tax law, corporate and securities law, sports, and entertainment are some of the highest paying fields with salaries ranging from $126,000 to $182,000.
The average rate in the mid to late 1980s was 82.9% .
Public sector jobs and those working for the government tend to have a lower salary average than private-sector jobs.
Lawyer Salary Guide. Lawyers earned a median annual wage of $122,960 in 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports, with a range from the lowest 10% earning less than $60,000 and the highest 10% earning more than $208,000.
However, pay information from the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal says first-year associates earned median base salaries of $98,750 to $180,000 in 2019, depending on the size of their firms. ABA estimates partners earned $371,000 to $1.136 million depending whether they had equity in the firm.