What is the starting salary for lawyears?

Answer 1

There really is not a "salary" for most lawyers. It all depends on what kind of law one chooses to practice, who the lawyer works for, where he works, and how he chooses to get paid.

Transactional lawyers generally can charge 150 - 300 per hour. I know what you are thinking, this sounds like a ridiculous amount of money. But the amount of expenses a lawyer has are astronomical.

Lawyers use an online subscription website, either lexisnexis or westlaw that can charge 15 dollars a minute to use. The websites have pretty much every law ever written, and records of every case ever tried. We have to use these websites because if we don't have the most current information, we can be sued for malpractice. Lovely.

Personal injury lawyers usually work on contingency, meaning they only get paid if they win, or they get a settlement from the other side. Because they only win 50% of the time, they often take 30 - 40% of the money from the settlement. So if you win 1 million dollars, your lawyer will walk away with $300,000. Good money. But if the lawyer loses, then he has just worked for 6 months to a year for absolutely nothing.

If the lawyer works as a prosecutor or public defender, she can usually expect to make $40,000 - $50,000, which isn't much considering the $150,000 in student loans she has when she graduates.