# Over a lifetime, lawyers earn, on average, a million dollars more than college grads?



## Dauntless (Nov 3, 2010)

What’s the value of a law degree? $1M in a lifetime, report says
Posted Jul 17, 2013 7:42 AM CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Two professors are battling the conventional wisdom about the lowered value of a law degree with a research paper finding a JD more than pays for itself.

Over a lifetime, a law grad will make $1 million more, on average, than a college grad, according to the authors, Seton Hall University law professor Michael Simkovic and Rutgers University economics and business professor Frank McIntyre. The median increase in earnings is $610,000. Inside Higher Ed summarizes their findings.

The median value of a JD is $350,000 for those in the 25th percentile and $1.1 million in the 75th percentile. “People with law degrees are still doing a lot better than people with only bachelor’s degrees,” Simkovic told Inside Higher Ed.

Simkovic and McIntyre used data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, which records whether individuals have law degrees, and the National Education Longitudinal Study. About two-fifths of those with JDs in the sample studied were not employed as lawyers.

The data covers four panels of graduates from 1996 through 2008 and looks at salaries through 2011. The study does not factor in tuition costs since they vary so much. Nor does it compare the value of a law degree from higher-ranked versus lower-ranked schools. Future earnings are estimated based on historic data.

“The data does not suggest that law graduates were unaffected by the recession,” the study says. “Rather, earnings dropped for both law graduates and college graduates after the late 2000s recession, and law graduates maintained their relative advantage. It is this relative advantage—not absolute outcomes—that measures the value of the law degree.”

“Predictions of structural change in the legal industry date back at least to the invention of the typewriter,” the study says. “But lawyers have prospered while adapting to once threatening new technologies and modes of work—computerized and modular legal research through Lexis and Westlaw; word processing; electronic citation software; electronic document storage and filing systems; automated document comparison; electronic document search; email; photocopying; desktop publishing; standardized legal forms; will-making and tax-preparing software. Through it all, the law degree has continued to offer a large earnings premium.”

Kyle McEntee, who co-founded Law School Transparency, told Inside Higher Ed that the professors have missed the point. “Law schools have made a habit out of capturing as much value out of their students as possible—and for a long time, used deceptive and immoral marketing tactics to do so,” McEntee told Inside Higher Ed in an email. “Tens of thousands of law graduates leave school each year wondering how they're going to manage to pay off their six-figure loans. That's what motivates critics and frightens prospective law students.”

Updated at 9:35 a.m. to clarify that McIntyre is not a law professor.[/B]


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

Dauntless said:


> Over a lifetime, a law grad will make $1 million more, on average, than a college grad, according to the authors


I'm both, so do I make double? :O


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## Gnome (Jul 27, 2013)

1 million dollars is really nothing if you are not happy doing the things you want to do. There are other professions out there that earn the same amount if not more. And imo, if you set your mind to something and truly love it, you can find lucrative opportunities through your passion.


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## Slider (Nov 17, 2009)

How much does law school cost?


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## FearAndTrembling (Jun 5, 2013)

The market is oversaturated right now. Way too many lawyers. I know many who are taking positions outside of law. If you go to a top tier school and get in a big firm, then yeah, you can be a star. But there are more just scraping by. Way too many law degrees been cranked out over the last 20 years.

and most college degrees are worthless, so that stat isn't really saying anything


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## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

Most lawyers I know also have hellish jobs.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

I have a friend who is a lawyer. She works in legal aid and her specialty is landlord-tenant relations. I doubt that she makes big piles of money. But she loves her job.


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## Kormoran (Mar 15, 2012)

You can get a PhD and become an evil, megalomaniacal doctor, and hold the world hostage for the ransom of 100 million dollars, mwahahaha!


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## Kantonuser (Dec 22, 2012)

well, good im a student of law then

i guess.. :blushed:


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