Reply #27: Myths and misrepresentations.

[TahitiNut]

Let's begin with the facts:

Starting: $48,000
Mid-level: $96,000
Top: $155,000
Growth Potential: 223%

Salaries for lawyers vary widely depending on legal specialty, academic and professional qualifications, and type of employer. Graduates from top law schools who are hired by large law firms in major cities, large corporations and financial institutions command extremely high starting salaries. For those with degrees from less prestigious schools, those working for local or state governments, or those in smaller practices, salaries will be lower. Establishing a private legal practice may take several years, and beginning lawyers who choose this path must often supplement their income with other work.

The BLS reports that the mean hourly earnings for a lawyer was $38.76 in 2000. Multiplied by the mean hours worked of 2,062, we get a mean income of $79,923.

Let's try to remember the "myth of the average" -- that a few very large incomes raises the "average" without benefitting the rest. (Bill Gates walked into a room ...)

Now let's make some observations about income and expenses. An attorney in private practice must pay for office space, paralegal support, supplies, all benefits, association fees, pro bono work, and other expenses out of that income. A judge on a public salary does not pay these expenses; they're additional expenses to taxpayers. Furthermore, if there's competition for attoneys, raising the government salary will lead to increases in private salaries, merely to compete for that "talent."

When Rehnquist talks about "diversity," check your wallet. If he's talking about anything, he's talking about fewer white, well-connected, patrician, privileged, crony capitalist attorneys -- legal whores. Good. Lower the salaries then.

Let's hear Rehnquist talk about increasing the pay of the USSC janitors, clerks, drivers, and hourly workers!