Does a Gender Pay Gap Exist for New Law Graduates and Has It Changed Over Time?, NALP Bulletin, October 2019
NALP Research: Starting Salaries - Class of 2020
Salaries of public interest attorneys
Four salary distribution graphs provide insight into changes in the distribution of full-time entry-level salaries from 1991 through 2006 -- and offer a better understanding of why medians don't tell the whole story.
It does not take more than a quick look at the table entitled A Quarter Century Look at Median Starting Salaries by Firm Size — 1993-2017 to see that starting salaries at the largest law firms have increased far more than at smaller firms. The difference is stark: whereas the median salaries at the largest firms (251+ attorneys) have gone up by 157%, at the smallest firms the median has not even doubled. This discrepancy has contributed to the evolution of the bi-modal nature of the salary distribution.
Law school graduates from the Class of 2017 who were transfer students were more likely to be employed as of March 15, 2018, compared to the class as a whole — and to have obtained a job in a large law firm. These are the bottom-line findings based on information on graduate transfer status collected for the first time for the Class of 2017.
It’s easy for public service law students to forget to develop their business management and other skills. Remind them of the importance of a balanced skillset.
Among attorneys working in civil legal services organizations, as public defenders or local prosecuting attorneys, or as attorneys in public interest organizations, those providing civil legal services have the lowest median entry-level salary, have the smallest increases in salary based on experience, and have seen the slowest growth in salary levels over the past 14 years. This is a key finding from NALP/PSJD’s 2018 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey and is consistent with findings from earlier surveys which have been conducted periodically since 2004.
“Which location offers the most buying power?” The answer — and the dollars that accompany the salary with the greater buying power — often translates into more discretionary income and lifestyle options for new attorneys. And, in fact, when buying power is taken into account, every one of the top cities (based on number of law firm jobs taken) is more affordable than New York City, with the exception of Miami. These are some of the questions you can answer using a NALP resource called the “Buying Power Index”
Here are summary findings on the salaries of primary, second, and third law school career services professionals.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor details some of the key takeaways from NALP’s Class of 2020 Employment Report and Salary Survey, including the first indications of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the legal employment market.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor shares highlights on legal employment findings for the Class of 2021 from NALP’s annual Employment Report and Salary Survey.
Jenner & Block’s Courtney Carter, 2022-23 NALP Vice President of DEI, explains what diversity professionals do and how you can best work with them in honor of Global Diversity Awareness Month during October.
Every two years, NALP conducts a nationwide survey of U.S. law school career services offices to collect data on staffing, salaries, and operational changes. In total, 83 offices responded to the 2025 U.S. Law School Career Services Survey, reporting information as of May 1, 2025, or the 2024-2025 academic year, as applicable.
Compare NALP's bimodal salary curve over several years
Findings on First-Year Salaries from the NALP 2023 Associate Salary Survey
One of the ways NALP has documented the salaries of law school graduating classes is with a picture. This column looks at salary distribution curves and salary medians over time.
NALP's Research Director takes a look back at salary trends from 1985-2013 in both current dollars and constant dollars.
Here are excerpted findings from the 2010 Public Sector and Public Interest Attorney Salary Survey .
Public service attorney salaries are a key indicator of public service attorneys’ experiences of work — and one that NALP has been watching and reporting on for some time. In our reports, we’ve worked to give these salary figures context, mostly by comparing them with the salaries of private firm associates with similar experience. For legal aid attorneys tending bar and driving rideshare on the side, a more relevant — and more threatening — figure than what they might make if they changed careers is what they need to make to pay rent: the cost of living. That’s why I’m proud to report that the online, interactive version of NALP’s Public Ser...
Judith Collins recaps the effects of NALP’s research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the legal profession as part of the association’s 50th Anniversary in 2021.
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor outlines key findings on first-year salaries for associates from the 2021 Associate Salary Survey report, which is available at www.nalp.org/bookstore.
NALP Research: Class of 2018 Buying Power Index, November 2019
Since the mid-1990s, law firms of all sizes have increased their first-year associate salaries, but the percentage of increase at the largest firms is double that of the smallest firms despite the fact that large firms in some markets backed off from starting associates at $160,000.
NALP’s new 2019 Associate Salary Survey report shows that the overall median first-year base salary as of January 1, 2019, was $155,000, up $20,000 (14.8%) from 2017, the year of the most recent previous survey administration. In both survey years law firms of 251+ lawyers accounted for about 70% of responses.
Findings on JD Advantage jobs in the legal profession from NALP’s graduate employment data from the Class of 2018.
NALP Research: Buying Power Index Class of 2012, September 2013
For the most part, salary medians have increased by about $1,000 per year for the public service attorneys whose earnings have now been researched for a decade by NALP.
With the Class of 2009, NALP introduced the concept of an adjusted salary mean for its analyses of reported starting salaries for full-time jobs, and in particular law firm jobs.
It is important for women law students — and those who advise them — to be aware of where early pay gaps may exist and of how those gaps may widen over time in their chosen employment sector.
Salary transparency laws, which require eligible employers to disclose salary ranges and compensation information on public job postings, aim to address wage discrepancies and promote fair compensation.
NALP Research: Salaries & Compensation
This table offers a look at full-time starting salaries reported by the Class of 2010 by employer or job type.
Students entering the private sector are encouraged to seek the highest salary they can get in the market they are competing in, while students entering the world of public service are counseled about how to manage their inevitably low salaries. But now there has begun to be greater scrutiny of the longer term consequences of lower salaries in the public service arena.
Analyzing decades of NALP Employment Report & Salary Survey data as part of NALP’s 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition Bulletin.
Chapman Cutler’s Shannon Burke and Jessica Hoffer offer tips for increasing cross-departmental collaboration and communication among the recruiting and DEI functions at legal employers.
As Judy Collins teased in her companion article, NALP will be breaking new ground with the 2018 Public Service Attorney Salary Report by releasing it simultaneously as a traditional, static PDF and an interactive web tool. The core of the tool will be a series of visualizations that readers will be able to tweak to their needs. We are excited to share this tool with you later this summer, when it will be released on www.psjd.org/salary-report, free to PSJD subscribers and for purchase to non-subscribers. We hope this new way of presenting our research will bring the survey data and Judy’s findings to life in a way that engages your students, ...
Much of our current economic landscape, not only within the legal market but more generally in the U.S. and indeed globally, could be described using a bimodal curve.
NALP recently launched its inaugural Canadian Associate Salary Survey to study associate, summer student, and articling student compensation within Canadian law offices. This article shares the high-level findings from this new study with NALP members.
NALP Research: Buying Power Index Class of 2011, January 2013
Salary Findings from NALP's 2016 Survey of Legal Career Professionals, November 2016
A 15-year retrospective on law firm starting salaries as reported by law graduates.
What impact did those $180,000 first-year salaries have on NALP's survey findings for 2017? The answer is different than you might think.
NALP Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor lays out changes to include more data about first-generation college students who graduate with the Class of 2020 in the annual Employment Report and Salary Survey (ERSS).
NALP Director of Research Danielle Taylor highlights employment outcomes by level of parental education from Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law Graduates, Class of 2020.
NALP’s 2018 Survey of Legal Career Professionals reveals that individuals whose jobs involve primarily professional development at the department head or first level, as a group, earn more than individuals whose jobs involve primarily recruiting or those whose jobs are a mix of both. Among second-level positions, the difference reflects at least in part the greater incidence of coordinators/administrators at this level on the recruiting side than on the professional development side.
NALP research on member salaries, including career services offices and legal employer personnel in the U.S. and Canada
Median salaries have doubled for graduates accepting jobs in private practice in the last 15 years -- but what does that really mean?
Legal Recruitment Then and Now
Career services professionals have a duty to inform students of the many compensation systems small firms may offer. Clearly, there are more benefits available than an initial glance at national salary statistics may indicate.
Median salaries at the largest firms have remained quite stable for the past five years, in contrast to the mid to late 1990s.
Law school alumni from the Class of 2014, when surveyed three years after graduation, reported higher employment rates, higher aggregate salaries, lower rates of intention to change jobs, were more often working as a practicing lawyer, and reported higher overall satisfaction with their current job than did graduates from the Classes of 2010 and 2011. The data give us another measure to assess the improvement in the law school graduate employment market following the recession.
According to California’s Inspection of Public Records Act, “access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state.”1 Part of conducting the people’s business is compensating government employees. For groups like the Nevada Policy Research Institute, government compensation is a particularly important part. They argue that “accurate, comprehensive and easily searchable information on the compensation of public employees … is necessary to increase public understanding of government and help decision makers, including elected officials and voters, make informed d...
White & Case LLP’s Graziella Reis-Trani and Sidley Austin LLP’s Sharon Light explain how law firms can use alumni relations programs to build a winning case around career transitions.
Summary Salary Findings from 2020 Survey of Legal Career Professionals
The 10-year span of NALP's Public Sector & Public Interest Attorney Salary Survey documents public interest salaries
A 14-Year Retrospective on law firm associate salaries as reported by firms.
The economic crisis has created an opportunity for law firms to rethink their talent management practices, including the compensation of associates. This webinar provides significant insights to aid that process.
New survey reveals some gains in public sector salaries -- but also a widening gap between the public and private sector.
Over the past 20 years law firms of all sizes have increased their first-year salaries, but the percentage increase at the largest firms is double that of the smallest firms.
Equity partners in multi-tier law firms continue to be disproportionately white men. New figures from NALP show that in 2017, only 18.7% of equity partners were women and only 6.1% were racial/ethnic minorities
As has been reported earlier, in the February 2018 NALP Bulletin and in NALP’s Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms in 2017, just over 8% of partners at major US law firms in 2017 were minorities and almost 23% were women. For associates the figures were just over 23% and about 45.5%, respectively. These figures have generally gone up over time.
NALP’s 2021-22 PSJD Fellow Chelsea-Leigh Flucus explores wage transparency and its impact on public service attorneys as employers strive to retain their workers amid the “Great Resignation.”
NALP Research: Full-time Salaries for Jobs Lasting at Least One Year, by Employer or Job Type — Class of 2020
NALP Research: Class of 2020 Buying Power Index
Here's a closer look at differences and similarities in the salary distribution curves for the six largest legal employment markets for the Class of 2014.
NALP’s Judith Collins highlights some of the insights gained from comparing 2020 data to the recently released 2022 NALP Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Employer Organizations.
NALP Research: Buying Power Index - Class of 2014, March 2016
NALP Research: Class of 2016 Buying Power Index, April 2018
NALP Research: Trends in Median Reported Salaries — Class of 2020
The average salaries of female lawyers continue to be lower than those of male lawyers, a fact that has led to multiple theories about the causes of the gap.
Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words -- as these two images from NALP research analyses prove.
Advising students and graduates on negotiating the terms of their offers can have an impact felt throughout their careers.
NALP’s Judith N. Collins highlights the importance of NALP’s data gathering efforts related to the Associate Salary Survey and its effect on the compensation for associates.
The overall employment rate for the Class of 2017 was 88.6% of graduates for whom employment status was known, up by 1.1 percentage points compared with 2016. The Class of 2017 is only the third to record an increase since 2007. Thus, the overall employment rate remains more than 3 percentage points below the 91.9% reached in 2007, which stands as the highest rate since 1988.
NALP Research: Buying Power Index Class of 2010
NALP Research: Employer Types with Average Salary for Class of 2020
A 12-year retrospective of associate pay as reported by law firms.
Selected findings from the 2009 Law School Career Services Survey and a retrospective look at findings from 1975 to 2009.
NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives Steve Grumm puts the findings of the 2010 Public Sector and Public Interest Salary Report in context by analyzing public service salaries in light of increasing law school tuition and increasing law firm salaries.
NALP Vice-President for Finance Carlos Davila-Caballero calls on the association to increase the representation of people from diverse backgrounds on the NALP Board of Directors.
New research on the comparative buying power of Class of 2022 entry-level lawyer salaries in over 100 U.S. cities.
