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A first-year lawyer makes either the big-firm market rate or something much lower, with little in between. Large firms pay incoming associates the standard lockstep scale of $235,000. Government, nonprofit, and small-firm lawyers earn the entry-level median of $95,000 (the NALP Class of 2024 overall median; the mean was $125,926).
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.
A first-year lawyer makes either the big-firm market rate or something much lower, with little in between. Large firms pay incoming associates the standard lockstep scale of $235,000. Government, nonprofit, and small-firm lawyers earn the entry-level median of $95,000 (the NALP Class of 2024 overall median; the mean was $125,926). The market is bimodal, so most new lawyers sit near one figure or the other.
NALP's salary data shows two peaks in new-lawyer pay, one at the national median and a smaller one at the big-firm rate. Large firms compete for graduates by matching a single high salary, while most employers pay far less. Because so few new lawyers earn amounts between the peaks, any single average is misleading.
Employer size, city, and practice area drive the outcome, with school rank and grades acting as the gate to the top-paying firms. A corporate associate at a large firm and a legal-aid lawyer can differ several-fold in year one. Verify the current figures behind these factors against see the linked source (see the linked source).
Choose a target track and prepare for its requirements rather than aiming at the average. Big-firm pay is won through grades, rank, and recruiting; public-service pay is sustained by loan forgiveness. Lovare's coaching helps you build the LSAT score and application that keep the higher-paying options open.
New lawyers typically earn either the big-firm market salary of $235,000 or, far more commonly, the entry-level median of $95,000 (the NALP Class of 2024 overall median; the mean was $125,926). Which one you earn depends on firm size, practice setting, and the city where you work.
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