Trial Lawyer Salary

Video Transcript

"Prosecutors in criminal cases for example are paid by the government, a salary. Lawyers who defend criminal cases are paid by their clients or in certain cases, if they're public defenders, they're also paid by the government. Civil lawyers on the plaintiff side, that is the people bringing the law suit, are often paid when they win and not if they don't and defense lawyers in civil law suits are paid by the client. In terms of what you can earn there are some lawyers that can make millions because of the cases they have. There are other lawyers such as legal aid lawyers who make a relatively small salary that they have simply chosen to do that. It can run from twenty or thirty thousand dollars a year to a great deal more. Some people come out of law school and go to work for law firms that pay substantial amounts of money for the top grade associates. Other lawyers go out on their own or in small operations and don't have a great client base to start with, and that has to build up. Once again, it can range from thirty thousand dollars a year to over a hundred, if you go to New York City or Los Angeles or a place like that where the prices are very competitive. There are more and more people going to law school and of those obviously a certain percentage is going to go in to practicing trial law. It's crowded but it seems like there's always room for more and as we say the cream rises to the top."