Friday, January 08, 2010

Lawyer Jobs and Earnings Again

Re my discussion of attorney earnings and job satisfaction the other day, I find that one tiny link from AbovetheLaw.com increases my daily hits by a factor of about 10. I suppose it's flattering, although a humbling reminder that roughly nobody gives a rat's patootie about this simple barefoot country weblog, and whether I keep school or not.

On the other hand, while we're maundering on about the difficulties of the life of the lawyer, we might get a bitch slap reality check from the good folks at CareerCast.com, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, with their annual survey of "best and worst jobs"--a survey which I assume is every bit as reliable as the US News ranking of law schools (joke--ed.). For ATTORNEY at #80, we have a median income of $111,000, with a range from $54,000 go $171,000. For PLUMBER at 150, we have a median of $46,000, with a range from $28,000 to $49,000. So if that plumber makes $425 for 45 minute, he's billing just 81 hours a year. No wonder he's got a beer belly.

For comparison, general practice physician weighs (#128) weighs in with median of $162,000, just a tad under the lawyer's max. I do note that the physician's maximum is only 29 percent above the mean; the comparable number for attorneys is 54 percent, confirming my suspicion that the spread is greater for lawyers than for doctors (downside spread is just the mirror image--attorney min is about 51 percent of the mean; for doctors, 75 percent)..Oh, and surgeons (#136) weigh in with a mean of $300,000, so it looks like Carla made a smart move to choose Turk over JD.

Update: And h/t to David for this link to an opinion piece by a guy who thinks we need a tighter lawyer oligopoly.

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