When older folks mention prestigious and wealth generating occupations that they want to see their children or grandchildren enter, they usually mention doctor and lawyer. Traditionally these types of employment have netted the person practicing these fields money and prestige. Does the same hold true for the 21st century?
In this article post, we want to take a look at the law profession specifically. Does being a lawyer mean you will earn vast sums of money?
The simple answer is that being an attorney can very well net you a large income. But this is not always the case. Though we have heard about the multi-million dollars settlements that attorneys have won, most cases do not involve nearly this amount of money.
Maria, a disability attorney in Melbourne, Florida said the following: “There are certain types of law where the attorney can make huge paydays. These include personal injury, real estate & criminal defense. But most kinds of attorneys do not make millions of dollars at a time. Think about public defenders and disability attorneys for example. These attorneys are capped at how much they can make.”
Schooling and Student Loans
An attorney will need to attend 7 or 8 years of college and then pass the Bar Exam just to have a shot to practice law. They can easily rack up a quarter or half a million dollars in debt during this period of time. It can take decades to pay off these loans when you are starting from scratch.
It’s important that the student really wants to practice law and do right by their clients. If they are in it for the money, the long hours and expensive schooling will get old real quick. There are easily ten law school drop-outs for every single practicing attorney.
If a law career is managed properly and the time and effort is put in early, it can be very lucrative for the attorney in question. Some of the top attorneys in the country are worth many millions of dollars. The most successful attorneys are ones who start a practice and hire very motivated and talented people to work with them. A large and powerful law firm will have a dozen or more attorneys and generate millions of dollars in revenue annually.