Scroll Top

Join thousands of law students - it's free

Starting salaries down for Class of 2010

Related Articles

It’s probably not a huge surprise that starting salaries dropped substantially for the Class of ’10 law grads nationwide, according to the National Association for Law Placement. The median starting salary for new law school grads dropped almost a whopping 13 percent, according to research recently released by NALP. The mean salary fell approximately 10 percent according to the NALP report.

The national median salary for those working full-time and reporting a salary was $63,000, compared with $72,000 for the class of 2009. The national mean was $84,111, compared to $93,454, falling nearly 10 percent from last year. The private sector was especially hard hit, according to the report.
The grads working in the Public Sector; however, fared slightly better, according to the report. Median salaries for government and public interest jobs were almost unchanged from 2009 — at $52,000 and $42,900, respectively. And the median salary for judicial clerkships even went up a little bit. The median for clerkships was $51,900, compared with $50,000 in 2009.

What does all of this mean for the Classes of 2011 and 2012? They may want to look more closely at small firm hiring and salary patterns.

“This downward shift in starting salaries is not, for the most part, because individual legal employers were paying new graduates less than they paid them in the past,” according to NALP’s Executive Director, James Leipold. “Aggregate starting salaries fell because graduates found fewer jobs with the high-paying large law firms and many more jobs with the smallest law firms, those that pay the lowest starting salaries.”

Hillary Mantis Esq.

Hillary Mantis Esq.

Hillary Mantis consults with pre-law students, law students and lawyers. She is the Assistant Dean of the Pre-law Program at Fordham University and author of career books for lawyers. Admissions questions? You can reach her at altcareer@aol.com.
Digital Magazine
Newsletter Signup

Get unlimited access

Get a premium subscription to the National Jurist for less than $2 a month.