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Choosing the right career for your children or yourself can prove to be a daunting task as it can be a life changing decision and salary plays the role of an important parameter when it comes to deciding the ultimate career path. Average Salary of a lawyer varies with experience. Becoming a lawyer is an extremely challenging task and at times even being a lawyer can get daunting.
As a successful lawyer I am at the zenith of success and I can tell you by experience that I am earning the highest possible potential of any career. As a lawyer, I am one of the most decently paid professionals in one of the highly recognized careers i.e. of a lawyer. At this point, this profession appears to be a harbinger of success and amazing monetary rewards. However, to reach this zenith of success one has to go through years of practice and long hours of hardwork.
What is the starting Salary of a Lawyer?
This is a very common question and is asked by almost every aspirant looking forward to become a successful lawyer. Despite the tough competition that this field has to offer, like every other profession, your career as a lawyer will start with a bit less salary for the initial years. According to the latest reports, the average salary of a lawyer in the initial years will be anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000 annually. Well, this might seem to be a pretty decent starting salary but keeping in mind the amount of hard work and education it takes to become a lawyer, the salary is totally worth the job.
What is the Average Salary of a Lawyer?
The average salary of a lawyer depends on a lot of factors that include:
- How much work experience you have got.
- What all clients you have worked on
- How high is your education level
- What is your working location
- In what field of law, do you specialize
- What all additional benefits are you providing
While talking about specialization, there are two fields in which one can specialize as a lawyer. The first is Corporate and the second is Criminal.
Corporate Lawyer Salary
Corporate lawyers tend to work for industries and businessmen and they are supposed to handle all the legal issues for a company. According to the surveys done in the year 2009, with eminent working experience, the average salary of a corporate lawyer can vary anywhere from $70000 to $125,000. While now these numbers are obviously raised to a much higher degree.
If you are an established corporate you can demand anywhere from $100,000 to $170,000 annually from a company for your consultancy. But this requires at least 10 to 20 years of experience.
Criminal Lawyer Salary
As the name suggests, criminal lawyers have to defend cases for people charged with allegations. Unlike corporate lawyers, the salary of the criminal lawyers depends on the paying capability of their clients. The amount of money a lawyer is paid depends largely on his reputation and the work experience he has got.
As a criminal lawyer with 5 to 10 years of experience, one can expect to earn as high as $115,000 per annum. If you are much more proficient and have 20 years of experience your average salary can shoot up to $160,000!
That was all about the average salary of a lawyer.