If the market is bad for lawyers, why is it listed as a lucrative profession on U.S. News and world report? Forum

[El Pollito]

PI people are such cocks

[lavarman84]

This board is too obsessed with Biglaw.

Law can be very lucrative and high paying especially in subfields like EP/Tax or depending on your market land use and development.

The wealthiest attorney I ever met was an EP/ Complex Tax Controversy attorney in a tertiary market who was a member of a 4 attorney firm of attorneys who do the exact same thing. He worked from home, built a hell of a client base, never advertised and when I was his paralegal he was bringing home over 700k/yr. I once met a Divorce lawyer in the same market who required a retainer of 20k to take your case. She would hire us as expert witness from time to time at a billing rate of 550/hr. I am family friends with a Personal I jury solo who has settled 5 cases over 500k.

This isnt to downplay the state of the legal market, but it's not only Biglaw that's lucrative, infact if your industrious you can really build something.

Yea, personal injury in a small firm can be incredibly lucrative. The struggle is building up your reputation and means of attracting clients. But once you do that, if you're good at it, you can make bank.

[Skool]

The truth is if you like law and last in it, you will almost assuredly make 6 figures relatively soon into your career (less than 8 years) regardless of what school you graduate from.

If your not in a management position at a non-profit PI firm, I've never known this to be true.

The only people making 6 figures in my current office founded the organization back in the 60s. My supervisor makes barely more than me (I'm a paralegal and I once accidentally opened her pay stub; she's been here almost ten years). Basically, you've got to be indispensable around here to be getting six figures.

Ya wtf Johann. Please qualify your statement about making good money as a lawyer to not include the lawyers who have chosen to donate their time and live ultra modestly. Otherwise your statement is confusing.

PI is a significant part of the hiring market. Disqualifying it from the claim makes a doubtful claim even more doubtful-er.

Plus PI is not pro bono. No one is donating their time. PI people are paid professionals like everyone else and they rarely make 6 figures.

[landshoes]

This board is too obsessed with Biglaw.

Law can be very lucrative and high paying especially in subfields like EP/Tax or depending on your market land use and development.

The wealthiest attorney I ever met was an EP/ Complex Tax Controversy attorney in a tertiary market who was a member of a 4 attorney firm of attorneys who do the exact same thing. He worked from home, built a hell of a client base, never advertised and when I was his paralegal he was bringing home over 700k/yr. I once met a Divorce lawyer in the same market who required a retainer of 20k to take your case. She would hire us as expert witness from time to time at a billing rate of 550/hr. I am family friends with a Personal I jury solo who has settled 5 cases over 500k.

This isnt to downplay the state of the legal market, but it's not only Biglaw that's lucrative, infact if your industrious you can really build something.

this is true in some sense, but the vast, vast majority of lawyers are lawyers because they can't stomach the risk that comes with running your own shop / a small shop. they're not entrepreneurs and they have no desire to run a business with unpredictable income streams, overhead, hiring and managing employees (and firing them), collections (oh god the collections), getting loans, dealing with confidential records, and everything else that goes with a business.

My parents made bank as small firm / solo attorneys but it's a business, and they're excellent businesspeople (and probably pretty okay lawyers). They had 4+ secretaries and were paying rent on a huge, huge basement just for their files. Plus they got sued individually for malpractice a few times, which is stressful as fuck. Even with amazing income, they got sick of running everything and went to do jobs with salaries and security.

[ndirish2010]

Do everyone a favor and please stop making dumb threads.