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Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 9:57 pm
by jared6180
I was looking around here and I have read that NYC Big law makes $160k+...
STL Big Law makes $120-140k
KC Big Law makes $100-110k
For some reason I get from my family, including a paralegal, that people really don't make that much as first years. So I guess my question is, Do 1st years REALLY make that much? How do billable hours come into play? What happens if you don't reach your firms minimum yearly?

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 10:00 pm
by Detrox
Yes, you make that much. Then taxes take a big chunk away. Missing your billables etc. is more likely to get you fired ("encouraged to seek employment elsewhere") then simply cut in pay.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 10:03 pm
by Ludo!
Yes first years in biglaw make that much. How have you been on tls for four months and never encountered market salaries before?

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 10:10 pm
by Scottie2Hottie
what they pay in taxes, some people don't make in a year

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 10:25 pm
by Veyron
SOME first year associates make that much. The vast majority don't.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 10:43 pm
by The Valkyrie
Veyron wrote:SOME first year associates make that much. The vast majority don't.

Yeah. Some people forget that 95% of lawyers are not, have never been, and will never be in biglaw.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 10:44 pm
by Ludo!
The Valkyrie wrote:
Veyron wrote:SOME first year associates make that much. The vast majority don't.

Yeah. Some people forget that 95% of lawyers are not, have never been, and will never be in biglaw.
OP specified BigLaw, so the answer to his question is still yes

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 10:46 pm
by The Valkyrie
Ludovico Technique wrote:
The Valkyrie wrote:
Veyron wrote:SOME first year associates make that much. The vast majority don't.

Yeah. Some people forget that 95% of lawyers are not, have never been, and will never be in biglaw.
OP specified BigLaw, so the answer to his question is still yes
Didn't say it wasn't.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 12:31 am
by jared6180
So around 5% of the TOP 5% of LSAT takers will get BigLaw? Is that about accurate?

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 12:40 am
by jared6180
where do the other 95% land? what do they make? I have always thought it would be great to get BigLaw, but never truly thought about how rare it was until lately. I guess my goal has just been to recover from my horrific GPA slump from the first two years of college, and do well on the LSAT...knew that I would need to be in a Tier 1 school, and knew I needed to be near the top of my class, but I had not thought about the top 5% really, although my goal is to be #1...like everybody else I suppose... I knew I could potentially make pretty good money, but I have been just doing this because I want to make practicing law my life, I did not realize how stiff the competition was. I learned something today, learned I have got to step it up and have a more competitive mindset I guess.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 1:27 am
by Bronck
jared6180 wrote:where do the other 95% land? what do they make? I have always thought it would be great to get BigLaw, but never truly thought about how rare it was until lately. I guess my goal has just been to recover from my horrific GPA slump from the first two years of college, and do well on the LSAT...knew that I would need to be in a Tier 1 school, and knew I needed to be near the top of my class, but I had not thought about the top 5% really, although my goal is to be #1...like everybody else I suppose... I knew I could potentially make pretty good money, but I have been just doing this because I want to make practicing law my life, I did not realize how stiff the competition was. I learned something today, learned I have got to step it up and have a more competitive mindset I guess.
You have to realize that a large plurality of graduates from law school don't even get legal jobs (i.e., ones that require a JD).

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 1:39 am
by Indifferent
jared6180 wrote:I was looking around here and I have read that NYC Big law makes $160k+...
STL Big Law makes $120-140k
KC Big Law makes $100-110k
For some reason I get from my family, including a paralegal, that people really don't make that much as first years. So I guess my question is, Do 1st years REALLY make that much? How do billable hours come into play? What happens if you don't reach your firms minimum yearly?
This has got the be one of the dumbest threads I've seen on TLS.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 1:39 am
by Anonymous User
jared6180 wrote:So around 5% of the TOP 5% of LSAT takers will get BigLaw? Is that about accurate?
No. I'd day if you have a decent enough LSAT to get into a T-14 and hit median, you have a shot at BigLaw. I think more than the top .4% of LSAT takers will get BigLaw in the long run, if you want to extrapolate it that way.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 1:42 am
by Detrox
Anonymous User wrote:
jared6180 wrote:So around 5% of the TOP 5% of LSAT takers will get BigLaw? Is that about accurate?
No. I'd day if you have a decent enough LSAT to get into a T-14 and hit median, you have a shot at BigLaw. I think more than the top .4% of LSAT takers will get BigLaw in the long run, if you want to extrapolate it that way.
To be fair, 170+ is 99th percentile, so T-14 is generally filled with people in top 95% of LSAT takers; however, I do agree that LSAT is a poor basis to measure this kind of thing. OP should check out NLJ 250 data, add up the amount of new first year hires, and divide that by total class sizes of the total t-14. Even that is generally a terribly rough estimate since many people outside of the T-14 make biglaw, but it's at least some form of a calculable proportion.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 1:46 am
by jared6180
Indifferent wrote:
jared6180 wrote:I was looking around here and I have read that NYC Big law makes $160k+...
STL Big Law makes $120-140k
KC Big Law makes $100-110k
For some reason I get from my family, including a paralegal, that people really don't make that much as first years. So I guess my question is, Do 1st years REALLY make that much? How do billable hours come into play? What happens if you don't reach your firms minimum yearly?
This has got the be one of the dumbest threads I've seen on TLS.
I completely agree, but someone had to make the dumbest thread...might as well be me!

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 1:50 am
by jared6180
Anonymous User wrote:
jared6180 wrote:So around 5% of the TOP 5% of LSAT takers will get BigLaw? Is that about accurate?
No. I'd day if you have a decent enough LSAT to get into a T-14 and hit median, you have a shot at BigLaw. I think more than the top .4% of LSAT takers will get BigLaw in the long run, if you want to extrapolate it that way.
I would love to get into T14, Northwestern, Georgetown, Virginia, Cornell make up my list of dream schools. Of those Northwestern would probably be my first choice.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 1:56 am
by Sup Kid
jared6180 wrote:
Indifferent wrote:
jared6180 wrote:I was looking around here and I have read that NYC Big law makes $160k+...
STL Big Law makes $120-140k
KC Big Law makes $100-110k
For some reason I get from my family, including a paralegal, that people really don't make that much as first years. So I guess my question is, Do 1st years REALLY make that much? How do billable hours come into play? What happens if you don't reach your firms minimum yearly?
This has got the be one of the dumbest threads I've seen on TLS.
I completely agree, but someone had to make the dumbest thread...might as well be me!
Before making "the dumbest thread", you should review forum rules and post the thread in the appropriate forum. See http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=170603

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 2:20 am
by crazycanuck
there are a lot easier way to be making 100k by the time you're 30.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 2:33 am
by 83947368
.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 8:22 am
by jared6180
GO ME!!!

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 8:39 am
by dailygrind

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 3:25 am
by clockwerk
The percentage of attorneys who work or have ever worked in BigLaw is much larger than 5%. 25% of graduates of the class of 2009 reported salaries of $160,000. http://www.nalp.org/startingsalarydistr ... lassof2009. That figure does not take into account unemployed graduates or graduates not reporting salary information, but 5% is still too low. There are also graduates who do not start in BigLaw but later lateral into it (people clerking, people who develop an in-demand specialty, people who work for a boutique that gets acquired by a larger firm, people who start in government, people who get certain LL.M.s). This is not to say that getting a BigLaw associate position is easy, though.

The other thing to consider is that it is possible to find financial success in the law outside of BigLaw. The 2009 median income of all US lawyers was $113,000, meaning that 50% of all lawyers earned at least that much, with the 75th percentile somewhere above $166,400. http://www.bls.gov/oes/2009/may/oes231011.htm and http://volokh.com/2010/07/25/the-bimoda ... awyer-pay/. Sure, starting salaries may not always be in the six figures, but it's possible to work your way up (provided you have the intelligence and work ethic).

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 3:29 am
by rad lulz
clockwerk wrote:The percentage of attorneys who work or have ever worked in BigLaw is much larger than 5%. 25% of graduates of the class of 2009 reported salaries of $160,000. http://www.nalp.org/startingsalarydistr ... lassof2009. That figure does not take into account unemployed graduates or graduates not reporting salary information, but 5% is still too low. There are also graduates who do not start in BigLaw but later lateral into it (people clerking, people who develop an in-demand specialty, people who work for a boutique that gets acquired by a larger firm, people who start in government, people who get certain LL.M.s). This is not to say that getting a BigLaw associate position is easy, though.

The other thing to consider is that it is possible to find financial success in the law outside of BigLaw. The 2009 median income of all US lawyers was $113,000, meaning that 50% of all lawyers earned at least that much, with the 75th percentile somewhere above $166,400. http://www.bls.gov/oes/2009/may/oes231011.htm and http://volokh.com/2010/07/25/the-bimoda ... awyer-pay/. Sure, starting salaries may not always be in the six figures, but it's possible to work your way up (provided you have the intelligence and work ethic).
Too bad something like 58% of all grads won't get full-time legal jerbs breh

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 3:38 am
by The Valkyrie
clockwerk wrote:The percentage of attorneys who work or have ever worked in BigLaw is much larger than 5%. 25% of graduates of the class of 2009 reported salaries of $160,000. http://www.nalp.org/startingsalarydistr ... lassof2009. That figure does not take into account unemployed graduates or graduates not reporting salary information, but 5% is still too low. There are also graduates who do not start in BigLaw but later lateral into it (people clerking, people who develop an in-demand specialty, people who work for a boutique that gets acquired by a larger firm, people who start in government, people who get certain LL.M.s). This is not to say that getting a BigLaw associate position is easy, though.

The other thing to consider is that it is possible to find financial success in the law outside of BigLaw. The 2009 median income of all US lawyers was $113,000, meaning that 50% of all lawyers earned at least that much, with the 75th percentile somewhere above $166,400. http://www.bls.gov/oes/2009/may/oes231011.htm and http://volokh.com/2010/07/25/the-bimoda ... awyer-pay/. Sure, starting salaries may not always be in the six figures, but it's possible to work your way up (provided you have the intelligence and work ethic).

I don't want to get into an argument, but you're wrong. 50% of lawyers earn at least $113,000? You are obviously getting all of your information from LAW SCHOOLS. I'll just leave it at that. Jesus Christ. The level of delusion among 0Ls and law students is a huge problem.

Re: Do 1st Year Associates REALLY make that much???

Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 3:43 am
by rad lulz
The Valkyrie wrote:I don't want to get into an argument, but you're wrong. 50% of lawyers earn at least $113,000? You are obviously getting all of your information from LAW SCHOOLS. I'll just leave it at that. Jesus Christ. The level of delusion among 0Ls and law students is a huge problem.
I believe it. But:

1) Lawyers /= law students. Lawyers are the people who already got the jobs. Many lawl students today won't.

2) Many leave the law to do other stuff because they hate it / they can make more money doing something else. People who have shitty lawyer jobs that make less money tend to quit being lawyers.

3) Lawyers surveyed largely graduated in a very different economic environment.