Typical Salaries for Legal Professionals

The legal profession offers such a wide variety of career options and specializations that it would be virtually impossible to list all job titles and their respective average salaries. Because of the sheer diversity of careers within the field, there is a huge array of salaries that are attached to those careers. For example, working in a large private firm you can typically earn from $90,000 to $140,000 starting out; however, with government or public interest careers (i.e. state's attorney and public defender) the starting salary is significantly lower: $20,000-$30,000. Below is a list of popular careers, but the list is by no means comprehensive. The salaries suggested reflect the average base pay of a person with that job title and thus do not include bonuses or benefits. Similarly, the majority of the careers listed below are not attainable directly out of law school and oftentimes require years of experience to achieve.

Job Title: Average Salary Range:

Attorney Level 1 $64,538- $83,929
Attorney Level 2 $81,906- $11,445
Attorney Level 3 $112,020- $143,287
Chief Legal Counsel $196,056- $308,448
Employment Law Attorney Level 2 $72,590- $89,223
Employment Law Attorney Level 3 $73,874- $112,060
Employment Law Attorney Level 4 $111,180- $148,593
Environmental Compliance Specialist $44,513- $65,529
Environmental Compliance Specialist Senior $52,902- $78,558
Associate General Counsel $137,193- $183,711
General Counsel $154,008- $260,441
Judge/Magistrate $121,997- $139,187
Managing Attorney $128,505- $174,560
Patent Attorney Level 3 $103,695- $125,696
Patent Attorney Level 4 $116,512- $156,219
Tax Attorney Level 2 $87,286- $115,018
Tax Attorney Level 3 $102,457- $132,424
Tax Attorney Level 4 $129,119- $162,222
Top Environmental Executive $112,829- $174,419
Top Legal Executive $180,311- $290,119

Source: salary.com

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