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<p>Legal employers don’t give a crap that a law school is ranked highly in tax law, or ‘international law’ or whatever. All they care about is law school’s overall ranking and aggregate reputation. </p>
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<p>This kind of chart is misleading. Honestly, you are over-analyzing this stuff, too far.</p>
<p>Look at it objectively. Like I said, in law, salaries are 'bimodal salary distribution". Those who get BigLaw ticket make 160k starting out, and most of other lawyers who didn’t make a cut at BigLaw will make like 35-50k a year starting out, if they are lucky to get jobs at all.</p>
<p>Also, that kind of ‘average salary’ chart doesn’t mean crap and is misleading. Only thing you should be concerned about is how well each law school places its graduates into NLJ250 firm jobs after graduation - that is the most objective and unbiased source of data that should matter in this discussion. </p>
<p>That 85k average starting salary is likely due to the fact that some kids got BigLaw and their high salaries bring the average salaries up to that level. There is virtually no job in law at entry-level that pays 70-80k a year. Like I said, you either make 160k (at Biglaw) or make 40-45k ($hit law) after law school, and there is very few who would end up making anything in-between those two clusters. I seriously encourage you to google “Bimodal salary distribution lawyers” and you will see what I am saying.</p>
<p>Lastly, I don’t want to be a downer, but I am saying all these to help you make a good decision for your future - do not EVER trust the employment statistics of law schools, ESPECIALLY if that law school is ranked outside Top 14. So many law schools are being accused of fudging their employment statistics that some law professors are calling their own law schools ‘disgusting’ and ‘immoral’, for tricking clueless students to attend after taking out 100k+ in loans. Running a law school is a filthy business, and these lower ranked law schools are desperate to attract those clueless students to buy their product for grossly inflated price.</p>
<p>Bottom line - law students from Top 30 schools - such as George Washington, Emory, and Washington U in St Louis - are struggling to get a job in this economy. Not a six figure BigLaw job, but just a job that would allow them to survive. My buddy is top 20% at George Washington Law, but didn’t get any offers from BigLaw. Go figure how terrible things must be at ANY law school ranked outside top 50.</p>