KoreAmBear;842291442 said:
After accumulating more than $300K in debt from undergrad and grad school, an average starting associate attorney position would be $100K (considering all the government jobs out there).
Getting off topic, but I think average 1st year salaries, even in California, is considerably less than $100k honestly. Sure, if you go big law you are well over 100k, but that's only like 10% of all 1st years I bet. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that 15% of 1st years don't find any work at all, and a good percentage that do find work are at non-profits or low paying gov't jobs earning 45-65k.
I had a buddy, smart guy, cal grad with good connections; he got a job at a relatively well known Sacramento firm as a 3rd year associate and he was making less than $60k. When he told me that I wanted to slap him. The market for (young) attorneys is screwed right now because so many more experienced guys are taking crappy associate jobs so if you don't have a ton of experience or a book of business to bring, the firms know that they can low ball you and get away with it because there are 50 other people beating down their doors willing to take a $25k pay cut just because they can't find any other work.
