First Year Average Compensation

As 2015 gets underway, we here at D. French Advisors thought it would be interesting to take a look at an important topic: compensation. If you’ve been practicing law for 20 years or more, you may remember starting salaries between $50-$70K. Most of today’s first-year associates at larger firms would cringe at the thought of starting out at these numbers. Each year since 1995, first-year salaries have increased by several thousand dollars, all the way up to 2014’s average of $135K, and the largest firms paying upwards of $160K. (These numbers vary by firm size and region.) Please find annual numbers compiled by NALP here: http://www.nalp.org/1014research

 

However, it seems that this upward trend slowed to a crawl and finally to a stop around 2007. Since then, starting salaries have either held steady or dipped slightly. It seems reasonable to assume that the financial crash of 2008 played a big part in wages leveling off. For further analysis, please see the following article: http://www.nalp.org/associate_salaries_2014

As an interesting aside, Forbes noted the large role that one’s law school can play in this equation. The article can be found here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/03/14/the-law-schools-whose-grads-earn-the-biggest-paychecks/

 

For more information about us, please visit our website: dfrenchadvisors.com

D. FRENCH ADVISORS
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