Do TV shows like Damages perpetuate the myth that lawyers enjoy healthy job prospects?
Rose Byrne's character comes out of law school and gets an offer for $ 150K from a law firm starting out as a junior associate. Patty Hughes, from a rival firm, also wants to talk to her, and presumably offers her a lot more.
From what I hear from a lot of law school graduates, finding a good job, even making a good living as a lawyer is actually pretty hard to do. Many end up working as paralegals if they're lucky. Michigan State actually tried to counter a blog posting from a law school graduate who claimed her education was worthless and did nothing for her.
Yet, scores of liberal arts graduates still go to law school in packs. You would think they learned about useless degrees from undergrad!
patticharron
I think that television and the movies and John Grisham novels do perpetuate the myth. Couple this with our "american idol" culture, "Real World," et all, and you have young people who believe that they too will go to Harvard and then take a job in corporate law for $ 300,000 right out of school.
The median salary for first-year attorneys is around $ 57,000. After five years, that figure goes to $ 74,000. The media salary in the U.S. for an attorney with five to ten years experience is about $ 88,000.
There are too many lawyers.
Tom
That amount of money, right out of law school PLUS getting a Jr associate status (instead of the status of "plain old lawyer") is very unlikely in the real world.
Of course, it *is* a TV show. In reality, most attorneys would be lucky to get to half that salary level in a decade.
IceBreaker27
The average legal salary is around $ 50k. $ 150k is high for a starting attorney, even at a top Manhattan firm. But...look at the hours. Even at $ 100k, many attorneys still make less than minimum wage with the hours.
That said, law school isn't *that* bad. It is a ton of work, but it is far from impossible. Many grads have trouble landing a job. It's a tough profession, and television does not show the true side of law. I have to explain to non-lawyers at least once a day why Law & Order is not a good gauge of...anything.
That said, it *is* a convenient degree to have. It's versatile. It only takes three years. I don't regret it. But I knew what I was getting into: 80 hrs/wk of research and writing.
Emily T
I can tell you that I recently went through the job search process to try to land one of those big paying, big firm jobs. They do start people out at around $ 150K and the myth is that if you make law review (top 10% of your class) then you'll get those jobs. Well, I made law review and I can tell you that is completely false. The good paying jobs go to the law students who have lawyers as parents that can hook them up, regardless of their academic merit.
As it stands I'll probably be a public defender making $ 30,000 a year (which is $ 10,000 less than it costs to go to law school for a year).
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