“The field is greatly overcrowded and the average earnings very small. This is the great objection. Only the more able and fortunate in securing profitable legal practice can hope to win more than a bare competency. Young men may not only be indebted to their family and friends for a course of study covering three or four years in preparation, but after that for a period of 5, 10, or even 15 years consumed in acquiring a competent practice. Many never reach such a practice, and are obliged to turn to some other occupation for part or full income, or to come down to the end of life in straitened circumstances, unable to do for their families what was earlier done for them to place them in the profession.”[41]
[41] The Law as a Vocation, pp. 66-67, Vocation Bureau, Boston, Mass.
“In 1912 the secretary of the Harvard Law School sent letters to all of the graduates of the school from 1902 to 1911, inclusive, asking for their net earnings each year since graduation. The reports returned are indicated in the following table, although it is to be remembered in this connection that less than half of those written responded and it can reasonably be assumed that these represent the more successful.”[42]
[42] Vocational Studies, pp. 15-16, U. S. Bureau of Education, Collins Publicity Service, Philadelphia, Pa.
| Year. | Number of replies. | Average earnings. |
|---|---|---|
| First | 694 | $664 |
| Second | 609 | 1,110 |
| Third | 497 | 1,645 |
| Fourth | 411 | 2,150 |
| Fifth | 317 | 2,668 |
| Sixth | 249 | 3,118 |
| Seventh | 162 | 3,909 |
| Eighth | 112 | 4,426 |
| Ninth | 62 | 5,321 |
| Tenth | 40 | 5,825 |
What Are Some Other Rewards to a Lawyer in Addition to Earnings From Practice?
Legal training fits a man not only to practice law but to enter other fields of activity. The lawyer may enter into commercial affiliations and into political life through the judiciary, legislative, or executive branches of the Government. Men trained in the law may serve the public as attorneys for towns, cities, counties, districts, States, or the Nation. These positions in the State and Federal service are as follows:
(1) Town or city solicitor.
(2) County or district attorney.
(3) Attorney general for the State and his assistants.