law: February 2006 Archives
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
Justice Louis Brandeis dissent, "Olmstead v. United States," 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928)
Runaway costs for a legal education are threatening to trample any optimism among law school graduates created by recent associate salary increases at the nation's top law firms.
Law school tuition is bounding far ahead of pay raises at firms of all sizes.
Whether new lawyers land jobs at giant international firms, where salaries recently hit $135,000 plus bonuses, or at small practices in the Midwest and elsewhere, they are paying up to 267% more for their education, compared to costs in 1990.
At the same time, new associates are earning on average just 60% more than what they were in the private sector in 1990, a figure that does not take into account decreased earning power due to inflation.
The result means that beginning lawyers-especially those in midsized and small firms-are shouldering proportionately much more debt at graduation than did their predecessors, a situation that some observers fear will lead to more loan defaults, attrition and job dissatisfaction.
