In this article by Emir Efrati from The Wall Street Journal, a lawyer complains about making $50,000 a year. I wish I could feel sorry for him, but in my field it’s considered a real achievement to be earning $50,000 or more, even with 10 years experience. According to Payscale.com, the average fully licensed social worker in the Providence area with 10 years experiences makes between $43,812 and $53,709, with the average being $48,952. But anyway, back to the pity party for lawyers:
A law degree isn’t necessarily a license to print money these days.
For graduates of elite law schools, prospects have never been better. Big law firms this year boosted their starting salaries to as high as $160,000. But the majority of law-school graduates are suffering from a supply-and-demand imbalance that’s suppressing pay and job growth. The result: graduates who don’t score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law-school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking temporary contract work, reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour, without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market.
The law degree that Scott Bullock gained in 2005 from Seton Hall University — where he says he ranked in the top third of his class — is a “waste,� he says. Some former high-school friends are earning considerably more as plumbers and electricians than the $50,000-a-year Bullock is making as a personal-injury attorney in Manhattan. To boot, he is paying off $118,000 in law-school debt.
“Unfortunately, some find the practice of law is not for them,� Seton Hall’s associate dean, Kathleen Boozang, said through a spokeswoman. “However, it is our experience that a legal education is a tremendous asset for a variety of professional paths.� [full text]
I wonder if any lawyers out there in the viewing audience have an opinion they’d like to offer on this?
Kmareka.com 
Here in southern NE we are too close to the supply of lawyers from the big schools. A large supply gives those who hire the ability to be very selective. Good lawyers are turned down simply on the basis of what it says on the diploma. Private practice?? Good if you want to enter a world of kickbacks to body shops, mortgage brokers and realtors to get work. Or, you can enter the slimy world of divorce law where those who helped get the judges appointed always seem to make out, and the overriding interest is not to settle while there are still a few billable hours left in the case.
Used to be that a young lawyer could make a few bucks doing minor criminal work. Now the public defender is representing ANYBODY who SAYS they can’t afford a lawyer and the current attitude is “they arrested me, THEY should take care of the mess I made for free”.
Most new lawyers should understand that they are no different than small businesspeople, NOBODY should expect a big paycheck and benefits in the business unless the work comes your way to support it. Of course many newbies make the mistake of leasing a new BMW, for example, when they couldn’t afford to BUY a Toyota, but they think it impresses the clients. Perhaps it does. Me, I’d look for a guy who watches the overhead, he or she is more likely to present a reasonable bill.
The short answer to the question is: find an area of the country which is growing and does not have such an intertwined business/legal society that a new guy without the right “connections” can find some work.
This ain’t the place. Here in RI it is a small pie, any piece you get comes from someone else and they DON’T like it!
The gutless bar association permits Bullbleep filled TV and radio adds to run without making complaint. Some of the adds are bad enough that they are a sad commentary on the intelligence of those they influence, but capitalism is capitalism. How many saps know that one of the biggest ad buyers F’ed up his part in the Station Nightclub case and then blamed an employee.
Anyway, Tony, that’s the story, $4 dollars a pound.