Tuesday, March 13, 2007

If you are looking for a job in law

These look cushy:
...Later this spring, elite law firms will again be offering Supreme Court law clerks signing bonuses of $200,000 (last year's rate) or even more for their first jobs as practicing lawyers.

That will be $200,000 on top of a starting salary of $145,000 to $160,000. Which adds up to an awful lot of Pottery Barn sectional furniture for someone who is, on average, 26 years old and just two years out of school. As Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out recently, that $360,000 beats the heck out of the $212,100 he's taking home for, well, chief justice-ing the entire nation.

The so-called "law clerk bonus" is a one-way ratchet, it seems. In a bidding war between boutique appellate practices at the nation's fanciest firms, the bonus not only rises each year, but seemingly it does so exponentially. When it hit $150,000 two years ago, it was hard to pick myself off the floor. Thomas Goldstein, who recently started the Supreme Court litigation section at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld, confirms that in the major markets, no large firm can expect to pay less than $200,000. "The only question," he says, "is whether it will be more."

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