Originally posted by: fritolays
I have zero interest in law but I know someone who goes to a pretty well respected law school (rank around #20-25) and he got an internship that pays him $2400 a week. Assuming that he gets a full time offer after this summer, can he expect to make $125k per year? I did some research on the firm and that seems to be the starting salary for Associates. That's really good.. now I know why people go to law school
And here I was satisfied that I got offers that pay me 60k out of undergrad
Yes, starting in a major city at a big firm is 125-160k, depending on city and firm. (No, DC is not 160k across the board, only a few are paying that, with the rest between 125 and 155). As long as your friend isn't a mutant during the internship, he will get a full time offer. You can look up what his firm pays on the NALP website, its all out there for first year associates.
Here's the catch, no matter where you go to school, those jobs are always competitive, and you really need to be in the top 5 or 10% of the class, depending on school, to even be in the running (I'm sure there are some exceptions, but that's generally how it goes). If you're at a top 5 or 10 school, they might dip further into the class, but its never a guarantee. There have been many articles expressing concern over the law firm hiring process, because attrition is high, and grades aren't a guarantee of fit or performance, but it's a conservative profession and the top firms have stuck with their hiring model so no one else has made a change either.
Everyone else is looking at govt, mid size firms, small firms, and even hanging their own shingle. All of these pay considerably less, and many who take these jobs feel misled after paying 25k a year for tuition and coming out making 60-80k.
The bottom line is that one should NOT choose law school if the only motivator is the starting salary, because for 75-90% of students, it's just not going to happen. There are a lot of "lost souls" in law school, many who have undergrad liberal arts degrees and little marketability, who get pulled in for the career aspiration. Nothing wrong with that, but beware that the loan payments can eat you alive, esp if you're carrying undergrad debt into law school.
Anyhow, I'm a third year law student and have seen and heard a lot of the above from my classmates. A few have jobs already, but the majority do not. I've been able to stay out of that stress because I already have a full time job w/ a career path (I go to school at night) and really never wanted to work at a big firm and the 70-80 hour weeks, but I can definitely identify with those that are leaving with a far different perspective than which they entered school. For me, it was a degree to couple with other skills, and I think I will graduate educationally much better off than I started, but I sort of found that path after I started. That wasn't the plan all along, but it has definitely worked out and I am happy in terms of where my career is going. I probably won't be in a law firm, but it still helps quite a bit with client work in terms of intangibles (trust, perception of intelligence) and tangibles (presentation, writing ability, critical thinking), and can definitely recommend it to anyone looking to further those areas as long as its affordable to you (think in-state public school!)
This isn't meant as a rant or anything, but if anyone's curious about law school, hopefully it gets you thinking about things other than the top grad salaries. It's a great profession for those that really aspire to be lawyers or incorporate some lawyering to their full time gigs, but a JD is not a license to print money.