Handle the deals, contracts and rules that companies run on. Long training, long hours, serious money.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$159,670
Starting out
$78,360
Top tenth
$351,600
The national median is $159,670 a year and the bottom tenth start near $78,360. These are the published figures for Lawyers as a whole, which includes government and public interest work. Corporate lawyers at large firms in big cities sit well above the median from their first year, and partners are far above the top of this range, because equity partners are owners rather than employees and are not counted the same way.
Two very different first jobs
A large firm in a major city, or everything else
The big commercial firms pay first year associates on a published salary scale that runs far above the median on this card. Small firms, government agencies and public interest jobs start closer to the bottom tenth. There is not much in between, and which one you land is decided largely by your law school and your grades.
Less money, a life back
Moving from a firm to a company's own legal department
Most corporate lawyers leave firm life after three to seven years for a company legal department. The pay usually drops, the hours usually drop more, and a general counsel at a large public company earns as much as a partner.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is two years at a community college, a transfer to finish an in-state public bachelor's degree, then a public in-state law school, plus the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), the bar exam and a prep course. The high end is four years of full price public undergraduate tuition followed by a private law school at around $80,000 a year. Law school scholarships are large and negotiable, so sticker price is rarely what anyone pays, and where you rank in the applicant pool decides the offer. The figures leave out seven years of lost earnings and the interest on six figures of student debt, both of which are real.
Law graduates commonly finish with six figures of student debt. Scholarships at law schools are large and negotiable, and where you rank in the applicant pool decides how much you are offered.
Bonuses
Large firms pay an annual bonus on top of salary, usually tied to how many hours you billed.
Full benefits
Health insurance, retirement plans and paid parental leave are standard at firms and companies of any size.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Work full time for a government agency or a qualifying nonprofit, pay a federal student loan on an income driven plan, and the balance can be forgiven after 10 years of payments. It is the reason many graduates take public jobs.
Bar dues and training paid
Employers cover your license fees and the continuing education you are required to complete each year.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Seven years minimum after high school, and there is no shortcut in most states.
Bachelor's degree, any subject
4 years
There is no required pre-law major. Grades and writing ability matter far more than the field you pick.
The LSAT (Law School Admission Test)
Months of preparation
The admission test accepted by every accredited law school. Your score and your grade point average decide which schools and which scholarships are open to you.
Law school
3 years
Three years for the juris doctor degree. The first year is core subjects, and the summer jobs you get in years one and two lead directly to your first offer.
The bar examination
2 to 3 months of study
Taken after graduation in the state where you want to practice, plus a separate ethics exam and a character and fitness background check.
Associate, then partner or in-house
5 to 10 years
Junior associates do research, due diligence and drafting. Partnership takes about a decade, and many people move to a company instead.
English and writing
Legal work is writing. Clear, precise sentences are the whole product.
Debate or mock trial
Arguing a position you were handed, under time pressure, in front of someone unimpressed.
Economics or business
Corporate work is about how companies are financed and owned. Knowing the vocabulary early helps a lot.
History or government
How rules get made and how they change is the background to everything.
There is no national law license. Each state's highest court admits lawyers, and you must pass that state's bar examination, an ethics examination and a character and fitness review before you may practice there. Most states now use the UBE (Uniform Bar Examination), written by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and made up of multiple choice questions, essays and practical written tasks. Its advantage is portability: a score earned in one participating state can be transferred to another. Some states, California and Florida among them, run their own exam instead.
Accredited law schools only
Almost every state requires a degree from a law school approved by the American Bar Association. Check before you apply anywhere.
National schools
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia and a handful of others feed the largest corporate firms directly.
Your state's flagship law school
Usually the best value in the state and the strongest network with local firms and judges.
Part time and evening programs
Four years instead of three, so you can keep working. Offered by many city law schools.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Mergers and acquisitions
Buying and selling companies. The highest pressure and the highest profile work in the field.
Securities
Taking companies public and keeping them compliant with the Securities and Exchange Commission's disclosure rules.
Private equity and venture capital
Structuring investments into companies. Deep demand and very deal driven.
Technology and data licensing
Software contracts, privacy and intellectual property terms. Growing faster than the traditional areas.
Tax
Often needs an extra year of study, and tax lawyers are paid accordingly.
Accounting or finance courses
You will read financial statements constantly. Lawyers who can are more useful than lawyers who cannot.
A summer at a firm
The summer associate program after your second year is how most large firm offers are made.
Law review or a journal
Editing and writing for a law journal is still what firms and judges look at first.
A second language
Cross border deals need lawyers who can work in more than one language and legal culture.
Plenty of people finish law school and never work at a firm. Compliance officers, contract managers, policy advisors, investment bankers, journalists and founders all use legal training daily. Companies hire in-house counsel at every size, and the work is closer to business than to litigation. Be honest with yourself about the cost though: the degree only pays for itself if you use it, and the debt is real whether or not you practice.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Email before you are properly awake, because a deal moved overnight. Most of the day is drafting and marking up documents: purchase agreements, disclosure schedules, board resolutions. There is a call with the other side's lawyers where four people argue about one clause for an hour. Somewhere in there you are reviewing a pile of the target company's contracts to find the problems before your client buys it. If a deal is closing you are on it until it signs, whatever time that is. And you record your time in six minute blocks all day long, because that is how the firm gets paid.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Uniform Bar Examination is used by more than 30 states plus the District of Columbia and several territories. A score earned in one of them can be transferred to another, which is why so many jurisdictions adopted it.
Transactional work is negotiation and drafting, not trials. Many excellent corporate lawyers have never argued a case in front of a judge and never will.
Firms bill clients by the tenth of an hour, and associates are expected to record a target number of billable hours every year. It shapes the whole job: the hours you log are how you are measured, promoted and paid.
Passing the bar exam is not enough. Every state runs a background review covering your finances, honesty and criminal record before it will admit you, and people do get held up by things they did years earlier.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.