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First-year attorneys make one of two very different amounts. At large firms following the market pay scale, first-years earn $235,000. Across government, public interest, and small firms, the median shifts year to year; see the linked U.S. News ranking for the current No. 1. Which tier you enter is set at hire.
By Ali Unar, JD candidate at Georgetown Law and founder of Lovare Institut. Last updated August 2026. Figures on this page were verified in August 2026 or point readers to the current source.
First-year attorneys make one of two very different amounts. At large firms following the market pay scale, first-years earn $235,000. Across government, public interest, and small firms, the entry-level median is $95,000 (the NALP Class of 2024 overall median; the mean was $125,926). Which tier an attorney enters is set at hire, not by later performance.
The gap reflects a bimodal market documented by NALP: a small peak of high-paying big-firm jobs and a much larger peak near the national median. Large firms match one another on a single market salary to compete for top graduates, while most employers pay far less. The blended average therefore misrepresents what most first-year attorneys actually earn.
Employer size, city, and practice area are the main drivers. Corporate, patent, tax, and finance roles at large firms in major markets pay the most; general practice, government, and nonprofit roles pay less. School rank and grades matter chiefly because they control access to the top-paying firms. Confirm current numbers against $95,000 (the NALP Class of 2024 overall median; the mean was $125,926).
Target a job type rather than the average, then prepare for its specific requirements. The market-rate track rewards grades, rank, and recruiting timing; the public-service track is sustained by loan forgiveness. Lovare's LSAT and admissions coaching helps you build the record that opens the higher-paying firms.
First-year lawyers make one of two very different amounts. Associates at large firms on the market pay scale earn $235,000. The national median for new lawyers across all settings is much lower, at $95,000 (the NALP Class of 2024 overall median; the mean was $125,926), because most new lawyers work outside large firms.
Corporate and M&A work, patent and IP, tax, and securities and finance law are generally the highest-paid legal fields, concentrated in large firms. Specialized patent attorneys with science backgrounds and elite corporate lawyers sit at the top. Exact figures follow roughly $235,000 in market-rate BigLaw regardless of practice area; BLS does not break lawyer pay out by specialty.
The Biglaw salary scale, often called the Cravath scale after the firm that historically set it, is a lockstep base-pay schedule that many large firms match by class year. First-years all start at the same market number, currently $235,000, with a set raise each year plus market bonuses.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026