<p>
</p>
<p>I think that would be very savvy, rather pretty stupid.</p>
<p>You need to remember that the $160K starting salaries for new associates applies to a very small number of firms.</p>
<p>
<br>
That is not a relevant comparison. Under the same line of thinking why does Goldman pay $100K to students from HYPSM straight out of college with no experience while others happily go to work for TFA for $20K a year. After all the TFA hires include many of the very best and brightest graduates and they work nearly for free. </p>
<p>The attorneys seeking judicial clerkships are clearly not doing it for the money while the associates hired by biglaw are. They are different candidates altogether and not interchangeable. Some see clerkships as stepping stones to biglaw and are willing to take a temporary hit, but public law is a totally different animal. </p>
<p>There is an analogous situation for engineers. Some engineering graduates are hired by IB and consulting firms as opposed to tech firms or staying in academia. But the IB and consulting firms need to pay a lot more to get top candidates. Goggle does not pay especially well but they offer a very high level of job satisfaction. IB and consulting firms pay high salaries precisely because the workload is extremely heavy and job satisfaction is low. Nobody in his right mind would consider the job if he wasn’t paid accordingly. These firms pay the market price required to compete for the very best candidates INTERESTED IN THOSE JOBS. They pay the market price required to divert some top students from tech careers. Still, Apple, Microsoft and Google have no trouble finding top candidates for much less money because these candidates are passionate about technology and have zero interest in doing spreadsheets all day long and living out of hotel rooms. Arguably, the best engineers will not work for IB or consulting firms at ANY price. They would rather eat ramen noodles and work for a startup on their own project or settle for a moderate income and work for NASA. </p>
<p>Essentially, the market is efficient. Biglaw pays the salaries they do to junior associates because that is the market price for getting access to some of the best talent. Not surprisingly, the firms with the highest starting salaries and bonuses, such as Sullivan & Cromwell and Cravath are also among the most profitable. You are also talking about less than 100 law firms out of tens of thousands. Medium and smaller firms pay less and get the next tier of candidates, all the way down the line. Frankly, even at $160K, the hourly pay sucks. The typical biglaw ssociate puts in between 3,000 and 4,000 hours annually for an hourly salary averaging around $60/hour. That is hardly more than unemployed junior lawyers doing contract work!</p>