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

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

Posted Jul 17, 2008, 06:00 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

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.

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Posted by Elle Woods - 4 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 16 hours, 32 minutes ago

This post omits a crucial statement in the article, specifically that “not all law graduates are so fortunate; many, especially those from less-prestigious schools, have far lower salaries and less job security.“
Posted by associate - 4 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 14 hours, 45 minutes ago

And by “lower”, I assume you mean half of what the avg college grad makes, because I have some friends in that boat.
Posted by kay sieverding - 4 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 8 hours, 3 minutes ago

Well now the financial services sector is off.

This disparity is one reason for the growth in pro se litigation. People who majored in the other subjects say they could have gone to law school, “joe” went to law school and I know that I am as smart or smarter than him, and you’re not shouldn’t have to know everything they teach in law school, just the laws related to your claim. They say, even if it takes me 3 times as long to research and write a document as a lawyer, I am still ahead financially if I do it myself.

A lot more people would do their own plumbing or painting or whatever, if the relative differences in pay were so great.

Richard Spitzer didn’t learn the finance at law school. Someone who studied finance will think if a lawyer can learn finance, I can learn law.

These statistics don’t separate out the people who are lazy or sick or choose alternative life styles from those who are hardworking and talented and apply themselves in business.

See also Wikipedia: “In the fall of 1973, Bill Gates left home for Harvard University [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. He had no idea what he wanted to study, so he enrolled as prelaw. Gates took the standard freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard’s toughest math courses. He did well but just as in high school, his heart was not in his studies….In December of 1974, Allen was on his way to visit Gates when along the way he stopped to browse the current magazines…Within a year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed.“

If Gates hadn’t hit the timing with Microsoft so perfectly and had a less successful career as technical entrepreneur, he might have ended up as a pro se litigant.
Posted by kay sieverding - 4 months, 5 days, 18 hours, 3 minutes ago

I have bad news for college graduates. Despite all the laws to the contrary, they can be put on a list of people who lose their rights. There are no written criteria for this list of people who lose their rights and there is no public hearing for being put on the list of people who have lost their rights.

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