What lawyer$ earn

• Author: Jason Tashea
• Pages: 42-44

42

In the decade sin ce the Great

Recession, wages fo r private

lawyers have risen, with

the average salary n ow at

$144,230. H owever, digging

deeper into a collec tion of

data released in t he last

year-and-a-half shows the

wealth is not being s hared

equally across gender,

region, client t ype and

practice areas .

“There’s a fair bit of income in-

equality—t hat is not unique to the

legal profession. At the very top of the

profession, people are ext remely well-

com-

pensat-

ed,” says Jon

Lindsey, a partner

at Major, Lindsey &

Africa. “T here’s lots of law-

yers who aren’t at big  rms, who

aren’t partners, who aren’t rain makers,

who are making a frac tion of what those

folks are makin g. It depends on where

you are in the scheme of thi ngs.”

The big winners—as in other areas

of the U.S. economy—are those already

winning, according to the ABA Pro le

of the Legal Profession, released at the

ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in

August.

With hubs for technology and

media, Cali fornia hosts four of the

top 10 highest

lawyer wage-

earning met ro

areas: Silicon

Valley and

San Francisco—

r a n k i n g  r s t

($207,950)

and second

($183 ,07 0)

—and Los A ngeles

and the Ventura area—r ank-

ing fourth ($176,020) and sixth

($172,900). The Washington, D.C.,

metropolitan are a, which includes

parts of Mar yland, Virgi nia and

West Virginia, i s third at $179,980.

This data, compile d by the

Bureau of Labor Statist ics and

released in May 2018, only includes

wages and excludes self-employed

attorneys as well as compens ation

in the forms of bonuses or pro t-

sharing, which a ffects equit y

partners.

In the middle of the top 10 is

Houston, where many  rms base

their energy practices and attorneys

pull down $175,380 on average.

America’s  na ncial center, New

York City, and its bedroom com-

munity, Stamford, Con necticut,

 nd them selves at seventh and

WHAT

LAWYER$

EARN

BY JASON TASHEA

1 Silicon Valley ($ 2 07, 9 5 0)

6 Ventura area ($172 ,900)

4 Los Angeles ($176,020)

2 San Francisco ($1 83 ,070)

INSIDE

THE

LEGAL

PROFESSION

INSIDE

THE

PROFESSION

LEGAL

ABA JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2019

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