Top Law Schools

What markets do you think are the most profitable to get into, in today's economy, and what should law school students be doing during lawschool in order to tap in to that market?

I don't understand the question. Are you asking about the best markets for solo practice? What area of law pays the best?

cavalier1138 wrote:I don't understand the question. Are you asking about the best markets for solo practice? What area of law pays the best?

The area of law that pays best and is the least saturated

Well, the highest paying entry level jobs are all at large firms in NYC, LA, Chicago, DC, etc., and with a few exceptions, they all pay exactly the same.

Not sure "least saturated" works for anything in law. Most of the "least saturated" fields are that way because they pay badly?

Maybe ERISA or tax, since a lot of people don't want to do those? But they pay the same as any other biglaw job.

Yeah, I was going to say ERISA for least saturated, but "most profitable" is such a nebulous term. Biglaw pays the most right out of the gates and has the best guaranteed salary. But there are solo practitioners who make better money. And there are government lawyers who don't have to put in nearly the same amount of time, so their hourly wage is quite high.

If you want to make money, you have to be able to stick with your career path. And that means picking one that you enjoy, not one that you think is going to make you a bunch of fast cash.

Be Joe Jamail. It's simultaneously saturated with one person and its insanely lucrative. Win-win.

(In all seriousness, tax is probably the easiest path to high paying legal work since not a lot of people want to get into it. But keep in mind that very few jobs in the conventional legal markets pays above a market salary.)

You'll be making the most money at biglaw firms in NYC, DC, etc. That being said, those are also high COL cities where your $180k won't go as far as $150k in say, Atlanta.

As for how to get into a target market? Either go to a T14, or go to a school that is in the market you're interested in (or has strong ties to the market).