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Forbes:   Law Schools Whose Grads Make The Highest Starting Salaries
Mar 28, 2014

For new lawyers who join high-paying firms like New York’s Cravath, Swaine & Moore or Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, first-year compensation for most associates is set at $160,000. Most associates at top firms receive salaries that go up in what’s known as “lockstep” compensation from year to year, from $160,000 to $170,000, $185,000, $210,000, etc. Some firms also give generous bonuses. The nation’s highest-paying firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, is known to pay bonuses equal to a full year’s salary.

Thus, because salaries at most large firms are pre-determined and associates tend to stay for the long term, young lawyers at those firms have little incentive to sign onto Payscale and divulge their salary information. That widespread entry salary of $160,000 also explains why grads of 10 different schools all appear to have the same median income; if more than half of the class takes jobs at high-paying firms, then the median will be set at $160,000.

One more note: Yale ahead of schools with higher median starting salaries because of its high response rate, 89%, and the fact that 87 grads out of a class of 222 are working in prestigious but low-paying judicial clerkships where the median salary is only $57,408.

The figures below are for students who graduated in 2013:

1. University of Chicago Law School
$160,000
Class size: 215
Employed: 209
Number reporting salary: 202 (97%)

2. Columbia Law School
$160,000
Class size: 437
Employed: 425
Number reporting salary: 419 (96%)

3. Northwestern University School of Law
$160,000
Class size: 284
Employed: 268
Number reporting salary: 256 (96%)

4. Harvard Law School
$160,000
Class size: 578
Employed: 556
Number reporting salary: 548 (95%)

5.  New York University School of Law
$160,000
Class size: 537
Employed: 514
Number reporting salary: 504 (94%)

6.  Stanford Law School
$160,000
Class size: 194
Employed: 186
Number reporting salary:  179 (92%)

7. Duke University School of Law
$160,000
Class size: 241
Employed: 225
Number reporting salary: 222 (92%)

*8. University of Pennsylvania Law School
$160,000
Class size: 259
Employed: 252
Number reporting salary: 235 (91%)

9. University of California at Berkeley School of Law (class of 2012)
$160,000
Class size: 312
Employed: 295
Number reporting salary: 261 (84%)

10. University of Virginia School of Law
$117,500
Class size: 364
Employed: 356
Number reporting salary: 348 (98%)
Note: Virginia places high because of the impressive number of grads who report their salaries. The school’s median private sector salary is $160,000.

11. Georgetown University Law School
$160,000
Class size: 626
Employed: 578
Number reporting salary: 332 (53%)

12. Cornell University Law School
Private sector: $160,000
Public service: $60,742
Class size: 193
Employed: 178
Note: According to Law School Transparency, among the class of 2010, 68% of graduates reported salaries.

13. University of Southern California Gould School of Law (class of 2012)
$145,000
Class size: 221
Employed: 189
Number reporting salary: 118 (53%)

*14. George Washington University Law School
$137,500
Class size: 575
Employed: 546
Number reporting salary: 242 (42%)

15. University of Michigan Law School (class of 2012)
$132,500
Class size: 388
Employed: 355
Number reporting salary: 282 (73%)

16. UCLA School of Law (class of 2012)
$135,000
Class size: 333
Employed: 302
Number reporting salary: 223 (67%)

17. Fordham University School of Law
Private sector: $160,000
Public service: $55,000
Class size: 481
Employed: 436
Note: According to Law School Transparency, among the class of 2010, 40% of graduates reported salaries.

19. Yale Law School (class of 2012)
$64,729
Class size: 222
Employed: 212
Number reporting salaries: 197 (89%)
Note: Yale’s median salary is low because 87 graduates did judicial clerkships where the median pay is just $57,408. The median in private practice is $160,000)

*20. Vanderbilt Law School
$110,000
Class size: 206
Employed: 194
Number reporting salary: 134 (65%)

*21. Boston University School of Law
$105,000
Class size: 278
Employed: 243
Number reporting salary: 127 (46%)

22. University of Texas at Austin School of Law
$100,000
Class size: 373
Employed:  343
Number reporting salary: 275 (81%)

23. University of Houston Law Center (class of 2012)
$110,000
Class size: 262
Employed: 225
Number reporting salary: 101 (39%)

24. Santa Clara University School of Law (class of 2012)
$100,000
Class size: 298
Employed: 226
Number reporting salary: 97 (33%)

*25. Boston College Law School
$90,000
Class size: 253
Employed: 222
Number reporting salary: 173 (68%)

26. University of California Hastings College of the Law (class of 2012)
$74,500
Class size: 443
Employed: 329
Number reporting salary: 211 (48%)

*27. Emory University School of Law (class of 2012)
$70,000
Class size: 266
Employed: 256
Number reporting salaries: 157  (59%)

28. University of San Francisco School of Law (class of 2012)
$66,750
Class size: 221
Employed: 139
Number reporting salary: 62 (28%)
Note: This is such a low response rate, consider that we only know that 11 grads are earning at least $66,750

29. University of San Diego School of Law (class of 2012)
$65,000
Class size: 327
Employed: 268
Number reporting salary: 115 (35%)
Note: Low response rate. Only 18 grads are making at least $65,000

30. Catholic University of America Columbus Law School (class of 2012)
$63,000
Class size: 246
Employed: 199
Number reporting salary: 99 (40%)

31. University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (class of 2012)
$60,000
Class size: 134
Employed: 118
Number reporting salary: 82 (61%)

32. University of Colorado Law School (2012 data)
$50,082
Class size: 175
Employed:  158
Number reporting salaries: 100 (57%)