Many Attorneys Struggle Financially, as Paychecks Fatten for a Few

Posted Apr 8, 2008 1:23 PM CST
By Martha Neil

Jeanne Wrenn loves her job as an assistant Cook County prosecutor in Chicago. But she isn't as thrilled about her $59,000 salary.

A single mother seven years out of law school, which she borrowed $100,000 to attend, the 36-year-old Wrenn has a part-time job as a bartender to help make ends meet, reports the Chicago Tribune.

"Most Fridays, after a long week at the county prosecutor's office, she's behind the bar at Lizzie McNeill's Irish Pub downtown. Clad in a black polo shirt and dark jeans, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, she pours a mean Guinness, handling the pints with the same dexterity she uses to juggle folders and legal pads during her day job," the newspaper writes.

While Wrenn earns more than most teachers, and the average pay for a lawyer nationally is $113,600 annually—almost triple the $39,190 average pay for all Americans—she, like many other attorneys, has to wonder sometimes what her life would have been like had she managed to score one of the profession's top salaries. The Trib notes, for instance, that a Boston lawyer, Kirsten Wolf, became an Internet celebrity earlier this year, after she pointed out that she had received little economic benefit from her law school education. (Her situation is discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post.)

As the salary gap between the bottom three-quarters and the top 25 percent of Chicago lawyers has widened in recent decades, the highest-paid associates at major firms are starting fresh out of law school at salaries of $160,000 plus an annual bonus and some equity partners earn seven figures. "A recent University of Chicago study found that at the top 50 U.S. law firms, profits per partner have soared by a factor of four, from $310,000 in 1983 to $1.26 million as of 2004. That far exceeds wage growth in the economy at large," the Tribune writes.

However, even lawyers in the upper echelons of the profession complain that they make less and lack the social status of those at the top of their game in other fields, as another ABAJournal.com post discusses.

And, increasingly, in the law as in other fields, attorneys must choose between working harder for less money, at a job that perhaps isn't what they anticipated or would have wished to pursue when they opted to attend law school, or finding a way to cut costs in order to put a priority on the quality of their lives.

This situation has created tension between the haves and have-nots of the legal profession. And that tension will only worsen, predicts Harvard Law School academic John Coates, as regulation of law schools and legal practice eventually eases, allowing more attorneys to practice and non-attorney ownership of law firms.

Thus, at least potentially, there could be a further reduction in the compensation that lawyers can expect to earn for their work, he says, as the profession is separated into three compensation categories. They will be, as the article describes them: "The super-highly-paid, a middle tier of the highly paid and, by far the biggest group, everybody else."

Comments

Wolfgang
Apr 9, 2008 9:52 AM CST

Welcome to the real world. Those at the top of the legal profession have always made the big money - nothing new. And it is also nothing new that if you graduate from one of the dozen or so “elite” law schools your “ticket” is automatically punched - you have to really screw up not to get into the top ranks. Nonetheless, more and more students want a law degree, thinking they’ll buck the odds and make the big money. The law schools will do nothing to discourage this because they are in the business to turn out law graduates. The “White Shoe” law firm crowd is hardly going to shed a tear over this since their disdain for the other four-fifths of the profession is open and obvious. So, what is the solution? At a time when there are thousands too many law graduates - and only a finite amount of business out there - a great many are going to have to learn the hard way - you aren’t going to be the exception. Moral to the story: don’t go to law school. Do something you enjoy doing - in the long run, you’ll make just as much money, you won’t get an ulcer, you may even be free from having to deal with pompous, egomaniacal assholes on a day-to-day basis.

And, for the record, anyone employed at the Cook County state’s Attorney’s office is hardly a candidate for sympathy. Those who get those jobs do so on the basis of political and familial connections, not law school records. All you have to do is look at all of the sons and daughters, nieces and nephews of sitting and retired judges, county politicians, and large political contributors who get hired year after year - and everyone else is given the middle finger. Count your blessings young lady - if you keep your nose clean you’ll get an associate judgeship in a couple of years - just ring enough doorbells and make the required contributions.

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Many Attorneys Struggle Financially, as Paychecks Fatten for a Few

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