As Salaries Shot Up for Corporate Lawyers, They Stagnated for College Grads

College grads considering whether to spend an extra three years in law school may want to consider some recent economic statistics.

In the economic expansion that began in 2001, salaries for specialized corporate lawyers and some financial professionals showed “extraordinary growth,” while stagnating for most college graduates, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.).

Salaries for college grads increased more than inflation for several decades, but not in the new millennium, the story says. Instead the big pay increases went to individuals in the financial sector, including fund management, investment banking and corporate law as practiced in the big law firms.

The article offers lawyer Richard Spitzer of Dewey & LeBoeuf as an example. He has an expertise in "catastrophe bonds" that are sold by insurers to investors, and his salary has doubled to $265,000 since 2001. Experts in such bonds are "probably a rarefied species--there's only a few law firms that do them," Spitzer says.