(no subject)

[vicarz]

Yesterday I talked to a career counselor from school - a former lawyer from MD who could talk about MD bar exam to my joy. She told me the average starting salary for a lawyer out of GMU Law is 35-55k. I just turned down a job that paid $88,369 to start at 40 hs/wk. Why am I in law school again? The big firms pay double that, but you also work double hours to get that. The more I study, the more I find the government might be a better fit for me - meaning there is no need for law at all. The average starting government salary for lawyers is 48k (more than the average for GMU? That can't be right). The average for big firms is about 110k, hitting an average of 200k after a few years. I might be stuck where I am, but I'm not unhappy about that. I think I should stop comparing myself and my salary, be happy with what I have. Good advice, but everything I do is a comparison to someone else. Why else would I go to school, invest, box, lift - all the things that involve rank?

I'm a little let down, remembering my friend who was making about 150k based on her value from OFCCP (DoL) in a big firm where no one with her school and gpa would ever be picked up. Her life sucked, sucked royally, for that 150k at first - but then she had it down to 50-60 hours a week. I've talked to some people over there, and the OFCCP has been neutered by the current administration. My vote is to eliminate them entirely. That doesn't help me market my experience.

Kel was talking about drinking in her LJ, and I started to comment that last night I came home and had a drink for no reason but to feel that feeling. Seemed rude to comment so I stopped. Seemed rude not to so I wrote this.

Today I just wanted to smack myself over things that are bothering me - really stupid, trifflin (don't call my tretto ass trifflin'), pointless things. I realize I'm thinking about them and laugh it off, but then they return. So I'm wondering with all that is going on in my life why I let this crap kill any brain time. I wonder if the isolation and all work no play is the problem, but I'm not sure it is. "After all, work is going great and I really nailed it in Admin law!" I think the only positive things I have to reflect on are work related or memories that are years old. I need a life. I'm not sure that if I had a life the little things wouldn't haunt me. It's hard not to focus on the negative.

I talk about myself a lot as though these things were important but they're not. I'm not.

EDIT - I think I got spam from Midnight: "Wanda Willy SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT: Plumpy ladies who love pies dcvicar" Thu 03/24 8k

Comments

[rivki8699.livejournal.com]

Does that include the people who spend a year or two clerking after law school? I know that a ton of recent grads do clerk and since they make like 20k a year (that's just speculation) that could bring the average pay way down. And if GMU has a big public service program (again, just speculation but we are right outside DC) they may have a bunch of students working for the government (some pay), Congress (less pay) or non-profits (no pay). So that could really change the average without changing what you could earn.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I don't know. It has to include non lawyer stuff - I would guess an more realistic average would be between the 110k and 48k, with the gov a bottom-feeder. Still, it's getting much harder to nail a government lawyer job too with the poor economy and glut of lawyers. My experience puts me way over the curve - if only I cared.

[anarcha.livejournal.com]

Standard starting salary at DC/NY biglaw is $125 k (less prestigious firms start at less, a couple specialty boutiques/super-prestigious firms start at more). Salary charts are here, with DC charts here.

I have lots more thoughts, but no time to write right now, since biglaw calls ;)

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I used the charts from findlaw that you sent - my eyeball told me 110 on average when I lumped the super-dooper firms with the mere uber firms. Or vice versa.

[jennbits.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how, even in my job, 50-60 hours a week has become normal these days.

[mreraser.livejournal.com]

"Kel was talking about drinking in her LJ, and I started to comment that last night I came home and had a drink for no reason but to feel that feeling. Seemed rude to comment so I stopped. Seemed rude not to so I wrote this."


Yeah, last week sometime she went into hot and steamy detail in one of her posts about how some splashed on her lip while she was bartending. Damn she's a good writer, cause it made me go grab a drink which I didn't want until I read her post.

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

OMG....that can't be spam from Midnight because it doesn't mention what kind of cake they are having.

[mpeace.livejournal.com]

She told me the average starting salary for a lawyer out of GMU Law is 35-55k.

Sheesh. I make more than the high end of that and I only have a high school diploma. For that matter, I spend my days just banging out HTML and the like.

I suddenly like my job more...