Are you searching for Lawyer Salary? One of the most popular career options is studying law. But do you have any idea about the various kinds of lawyers and their difference in salaries? Well if not then this would be of help to you. Lawyers working in the state government earn lesser than the ones who work in the private sector. In the year 2014, the median of the annual lawyer salary based in the United States was $75,830. If you need the figures broken down according to the specialty of the lawyers, then this article will help you to understand the amount you might earn based on the type of legal career you choose.

average lawyer salary

1) Salary of Corporate Lawyer – The main job of corporate lawyers is to ensure that company transactions are done legally. They act as advisors to a specific corporation, suggesting them on a various range of issues. Corporate lawyers need to advise on formulating contracts, issues based on taxation, analyzing the evidence for any legal proceeding and also advising them about the company’s legal obligations and rights. This broad job requirement needs corporate lawyers to be specialized in many aspects of the law. Corporate lawyers should understand the major specialties of corporate law like accounting law, tax law, contract law, securities law, etc. so the lawyer salary is also usually high for them.

Lawyer starting salary for corporate lawyers in most of the cases lie from $30,000-$100,000 per annum based on the location, size and also the financial strength of the corporation hiring. The top graduated from the law schools can expect to get a lot higher lawyer salary than this if they have the exact skill set required. Various A grade law schools like the Columbia Law School has the lawyer starting salary as $165,000. Most of the graduates coming from the US law schools have a more modest salary in the field of corporate law.

The average lawyer salary annually for corporate lawyers was $98,823 back in 2014. The knowledge and the experience of the corporate lawyers determine the exact amount of salary they get. In-house business lawyers tend to have a lesser income that the attorneys who are employed by big law firms. Corporate lawyer salary tends to increase every year if they decide to remain with the same company for a long time.

2) Salary of Patent Lawyers – patent Lawyers are meant to analyze and assess whether any recent invention is rightfully eligible for getting a patent, or they are not. Their job is to guide all those private inventors or event the corporations that are about to process the securing of a patent for a particular invention. In any case of patent infringement, after the patent has been obtained, the patent lawyer must protect it. It is their job to describe the invention in clear terms, researching about the existing patents and fighting in the court in case of any infringement. Patent lawyer salary is thus relatively high. The average lawyer salary in 2014 for patent attorneys was $129,500. However, the salary can vary according to the size of the corporation in which they work, their educational level, their industry and even based on the number of years they have served the inventor or the company. Patent lawyers need high educational qualifications and add times they even need to have an educational background in biology or engineering. Patent lawyers need to be highly skilled.

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3) Salary of Criminal lawyers – criminal lawyers need to defend individuals, companies or organizations facing criminal charges in the court. They have to defend them in the federal, state or appellate court. The task of a criminal lawyer is not easy as they need to investigate the case they took up, study the case law, interview various witnesses, study procedural and case law, construct the defense and ultimately plan a strategy to win the case. They need to be highly skilled and good at planning and interacting with people. They need to negotiate the pleas in court as well. Oral skills are the most necessary thing for a criminal lawyer as they have to successfully argue regarding the case in front of the entire jury and the judge. To develop a strategy the criminal lawyer should have high analytical and thinking skills. Based on how good the lawyer is at developing strategies, the criminal lawyer salary varies. Lawyers in private sector significantly earn a lot more than those in the public sector. The average lawyer salary for public criminal attorneys is $51,810, and for the private ones working for huge law firms, it’s a lot more. The lawyer starting salary for them is $115000 which is a lot more thereby making it a more lucrative career choice for most of the criminal lawyers.

4) The salary for tax lawyers – tax attorneys are the representatives of any organization, company or individuals in dealing with the state, federal and the local tax agencies. The given advice related to tax legislation on a daily basis to the individuals or the corporations. It’s their job to keep a keen eye on any changes in tax legislation and to inform and advise the clients based on those changes. They warn regarding the potential effects it might have on the finances of that firm. Tax lawyers need to be good at math and need to have an analytical mind. Accounting skills and critical thinking capabilities are also highly crucial for them to perform well in their area of expertise. Average lawyer salary for them is in the middle of $55,000 and $83000. Their lawyer salary can increase steadily and significantly if they decide to work with the same individual or corporation for many years.

5) Salary for Real Estate Lawyers – real estate lawyers can be of great help and assist people regarding any residential and commercial real estate. Any issues which take place regarding property ownership, neighbors, tenants, zoning, and development can be easy handles by real estate lawyers. These transactions need a lot of complicated legal documents, so real estate attorneys are mostly seen in their offices, reviewing and then drafting various contracts and documents. Real estate attorneys need to be exceptionally good in drafting. They should always keep a keen eye on the details and should be having really strong analytical skills to represent their clients in the court. The real estate lawyer must support the claim by collecting evidence. The interview various witnesses and develop a strong case in favor of their client. Real estate lawyer salary lies around $90,125 per annum. Sometimes family lawyers assist families with real estate cases as well. In this case, the family lawyer salary is similar to this.

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6) Salary Of Family Lawyers – Family lawyer salary is usually pretty handsome as it is entirely a broad sector. They need to be well familiar with adoption, custody arrangements, and divorce and prenuptial cases. They can even choose to specialize in any one of these fields. Some lawyers specialize in child custody, child support, and domestic abuse. This being some of the serious social issues, being a family lawyer has always been a hot career option. Family lawyer salary on an average basis annually was recorded as $70,828 in 2014. The exact specialization and the experience determine how high the salary of a family lawyer can go. It’s highly beneficial for lawyers for lawyers to work in the private sector as family lawyer salary for private sectors tends to be a lot higher compared to those who perform a similar job in the public sector.

7) The Salary For Personal Injury Lawyers – This type of attorneys works with clients who have faced any sort of psychological or physical harm due to the actions or the negligence of some other party. They fight for the victims of these accidents and injury and seek justice for them. They obtain the compensation be it monetary or in any other kind for the losses suffered by the victim. Most of the cases fall under the Tort law. Their job is to research and evaluate the case presented by their clients and analyzes various issues in the case plaintiff has presented. Personal injury law acts on this kind of cases, some of the common examples are car crash, injuries in the workplace, etc. while the lawyer starting salary can be low, the average salary of personal injury lawyers are around $73,000. They do not have any specific annual income in most of the cases as they work according to the contingency fees. What this means is that they get a percentage of what the victim receives by fighting the case. Lawyers who work for the various nonprofit organizations and even in the public sector receive less than the ones are working in the large private firms.

8) Salary of Civil Rights Lawyer – They are the ones defending the civil rights of the public. They defend any individuals facing any sort of discrimination based on his or her race, gender, color or religion. Civil rights lawyers also treat cases related to any sort of improper conduct by the law enforcement. Many a times there are cases of false arrests, unauthorized searches, use of extreme force and seizures which are unlawful. All these are dealt by civil rights lawyers. Cases involving human rights and equality are defended by them. Various civil rights lawyers might have their area of expertise and they are normally really passionate regarding what they do. The lawyer salary of civil rights lawyers is usually a tad bit less than the ones going for various corporate sectors. The average lawyer starting salary for them is $45,000 per annum, but they can earn as much as $200,000. Attorneys working for the federal government have an income of $130,210, but state government lawyers tend to earn less than that.

9) The Salary for IP lawyers – Intellectual property lawyers are the ones who make sure that the new inventions and innovations which are intellectual have the protection provided by the law so that they cannot get infringed by competitors. This field requires the lawyers to have a deep understanding of the various relevant laws, and they should also have a creative mind to think. They specialize in various areas such as technology, art, music, design, writing which can get stolen by the competitors. For various organizations protection of intellectual property is of utmost priority as it can cause havoc if some life changing inversion falls on the wrong hands or gets claimed by some competitor. There is a huge demand for IP lawyers, and they need to be specialized in these fields. This IP lawyer salary is a lot more compared to other lawyers. The average salary of them annually is $131,728 which makes it a popular career option among many.

10) Salary Of Medical Lawyer– If lawyers have an interest in healthcare then this is a field they can pursue. Their task involves building case theory, gathering the medical records and analyzing them, interviews with witnesses and malpractice the lawsuits. A lot of medical lawyers work in various hospitals and clinics and guide these places with rights and many times defend them when any case of medical malpractice arises. Some other medical lawyers work for individuals and sue the doctors or the clinics based on certain cases. This type of lawyer salary is around $150,881 per annum on an average basis. Lawyers working in big specialty hospitals tend to earn a lot more than the ones representing individuals. This is a critical area of expertise, and they need to have certain healthcare knowledge as well. Now that you are well aware of the various fields you can provide expertise and are quite aware of the different salaries. So no more delay and start preparing to get into a decent law school. You might end up having a career with high salaries. This is why becoming a lawyer has always been such a popular career option among the students across the globe.