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A law degree’s payoff depends on your student debt, report finds.

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A new report calculates the ROI from a law degree after factoring in law school student loan debt.

Graduates of many law schools carry heavy loads of debt that substantially reduce their early-career net earnings, a new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce finds. In "A Law Degree Is No Sure Thing: Some Law School Graduates Earn Top Dollar, But Many Do Not," Georgetown CEW ranks 186 law schools based on their graduates' median earnings net of student loan debt.

Using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, the researchers calculated the return on investment for law school graduates after factoring in the amount of loan debt they incurred during their studies. Net earnings refer to median earnings four years after graduation, net of debt payments. The return-on-investment calculations do not include the additional costs of tuition, fees, and living expenses.

For all law school graduates, median earnings four years after graduation were $88,800. However, after student loan payments were subtracted from median earnings, net earnings fell to $72,000.

Four years after graduation, graduates of 33 law schools earned less than $55,000 at the median after subtracting student loan debt. At the other end of the distribution, graduates of 26 law schools earned an annual net income of at least $100,000. And annual earnings exceeded $200,000 for graduates of seven law schools: Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, Cornell University, Stanford University, Harvard University, and Northwestern University.

Graduates of six law schools saw median net earnings of less than $40,000 per year — Appalachian School of Law, Faulkner University, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Atlanta’s John Marshall Law, Inter American University of Puerto Rico School of Law, and Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.

Law school graduates accumulated a median debt of $118,500 while obtaining a J.D., the researchers found. The median monthly debt payments, median annual earnings and median earnings net of debt for all 186 law schools can be found in the full report. Median earnings associated with law school degrees other than the J.D. are also included in the report.

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“When it comes to law school, the best returns are concentrated among a small number of institutions, educating approximately 20% of law students,” said CEW Director and lead author Jeff Strohl, in a news release. “Graduates earn the highest salaries from highly selective institutions. The top 26 law schools lead to six-figure salaries and a bar passage rate of 97%.”

According to the report, disparities in law school outcomes are largest for women and members of marginalized racial/ethnic minority groups, who make up a larger share of enrollments at law schools where earnings are lower and unemployment for graduates is higher. The disparities are most pronounced for Black/African American and Hispanic/Latina women.

For working lawyers ages 25 to 54, the gender pay gap favors men by $28,000. Female lawyers earned a median of $113,000 while male lawyers earned $141,000. This gender pay gap is much smaller ($12,000) for entry-level lawyers, indicating that institutional barriers and attrition in the legal profession might be contributing to the unequal earnings later in lawyers’ careers.

Asian American lawyers, ages 25 to 54, have the highest median salaries ($132,000), followed by white ($131,000), multiracial ($125,000), Hispanic/Latino ($113,000), and Black/African American lawyers ($108,000).

While those median salaries are relatively high, they don’t account for the student loan payments many former law students are making years later. Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino graduates are more likely to graduate law school with higher debt than their white or Asian American peers.

The Georgetown CEW report also indicated that “prior to the pandemic-era student loan pause, law school graduates were not making significant progress in paying off student loans. At six in ten law schools, at least half of graduates held loan balances that were the same as they were at graduation, or had increased three years after completing their degree.”

“Law schools are notoriously expensive. Graduates leave law schools with a median debt burden of $118,500, and lower earnings make it harder to pay back this debt,” said Catherine Morris, report co-author and senior editor and writer at CEW. “The consequences of six-figure debt are also far-reaching for law school graduates, impacting their ability to purchase a home, start a family, and achieve other traditional markers of success.”

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Introducing Northwestern Pritzker Law’s 2024 Post-Graduate Fellows

Five recent Northwestern Pritzker School of Law graduates received Northwestern Law post-graduate fellowships this year to support their work addressing issues such as economic justice, education equity, voting rights, gender-based violence, and prisoners’ rights.

The Law School awards fellows $50,000, plus medical insurance coverage, to support one year of full-time service as lawyers at a nonprofit or government agency to facilitate the start of their public interest careers. Post-graduate fellows have gone on to work for public defenders, legal aid clinics, district attorneys’ offices, and nonprofit organizations like the ACLU and the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

“We are thrilled to support this incredible group of fellows who are committed to improving access to justice and making our legal system fairer,” says Leah Gould, Assistant Dean of Public Interest and Director of the Public Interest Center at Northwestern Pritzker Law. “These dedicated graduates are bringing a tremendous amount of talent and passion to serve their communities as public interest attorneys. I am confident that, with the skills they have honed throughout law school, they will be gifted advocates and advance the missions of their respective organizations.”

Nia Crosley ( Ascend Justice )

Nia Crosley (JD’ 24) attended law school after teaching 8th-grade US history for six years in Houston, Texas. During her 1L summer, Nia worked in civil rights litigation and became interested in women’s experiences with state violence. Nia volunteered with the Women’s Justice Institute (WJI) and Ascend Justice in her 2L year. She continued to work with the criminalized survivor network throughout her time at Northwestern Pritzker Law. Nia interned at Chicago’s Domestic Violence Court during her 2L summer. She worked with the Bluhm Legal Clinic on investor protection cases, including an ongoing issue involving annuities twisting. Nia was also the Managing Online Editor of Northwestern’s Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology , for which she solicited several pieces written by Black practitioners in the field of criminal law, as well as a currently incarcerated criminalized survivor (publication forthcoming). As a fellow, Nia will be working with Ascend Justice’s Economic Justice Project, assisting criminalized survivors with a range of economic issues, including identity theft, tax fraud, and employment claims.

Christian Flowers ( https://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/ )

Christian Flowers (JD ’24) has been committed to public interest work since before his admission to Northwestern Law. Between college and law school, Christian regularly volunteered with the City Rescue Mission in Jacksonville, Florida, an organization dedicated to rehabilitating people experiencing homelessness in Jacksonville. During his 2L year, Christian enrolled with Bluhm Legal Clinic’s MacArthur Justice Center, working substantially in prisoners’ rights litigation. During his 3L year, he further enrolled in the Complex Litigation Clinic, through which he defended an indigent client at trial who faced litigation from a major credit card company. As a fellow, Christian will be joining the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, applying those litigation skills to serve the people of Illinois.

Rachel Ensign Habliston ( Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law )

Rachel Ensign Habliston (JD ’24) has dedicated her legal career to public interest law, working with institutions such as the MacArthur Justice Center, Ascend Justice, Legal Aid Chicago, the Children and Family Justice Center, and the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy. Her experience includes legal research, client communication, and drafting documents to support low-income clients facing severe legal challenges. She has also volunteered extensively with the Northwestern Prison Education Program and the International Refugee Assistance Program. Recognized by the David S. Ruder Prize and the ABA Pro Bono Honor Roll, Rachel has served on the Public Interest Law Group boards and the Student Effort to Rejuvenate Volunteering and contributed to the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. She will begin a fellowship with the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, focusing on education equity, community development, and voting rights.

Amira Guy ( Center for Justice and Accountability )

Before law school, Amira Guy (JD ’24) worked with advocates seeking to eradicate commercial sexual exploitation, which ignited her passion for human rights litigation. During her 2L fall semester, she worked full time with the Department of Justice Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. At Northwestern, Amira served as the editor-in-chief for the Journal of Human Rights and worked with the Clinic of International Human Rights Advocacy Clinic. A After graduation, she will be working with the Center for Justice Accountability as a fellow, focusing on human rights prosecution and documenting atrocity crimes, including acts of genocide, war crimes, and sexual and gender-based violence. Overall, she seeks to hold human rights abusers accountable for their crimes while prioritizing trauma-informed care and transitional justice.

Marcus Owens ( Uptown People’s Law Center )

As an undergraduate, Marcus Owens (JD ’24) discovered a passion for social justice and public interest law, pivoting from an economics focus to social sciences, political science, and legal studies. Intrigued by the history, strategy, and the logistics of social justice work and public interest law, he pursued a JD at Northwestern. As part of the Public Interest Law Group and Northwestern Prison Education Program, Owens helped organize community events, held space with fellow classmates and volunteers, and served on a student hiring committee. He gained hands-on experience through internships at the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and the Uptown People’s Law Center (UPLC), focusing on housing rights, community engagement, large-impact prisoners’ litigation, and civil rights cases. His participation in the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic deepened his commitment to community lawyering and prisoner’s rights. Owens aims to empower marginalized communities through legal aid and mutual aid organizing and will join UPLC as a staff attorney, focusing on incarcerated and previously incarcerated individuals through the Social Security In-Reach project and ongoing prisoners’ rights litigation.

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Where Do Law Grads Get the Most Bang for Their Buck?

A newly released report analyzes where law school graduates get the best return on their investment.

June 25, 2024 at 06:00 AM

3 minute read

Legal Education

Christine Charnosky

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• Columbia Law graduates topped the list of having the highest median income net of their college debts.
• The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and University of Chicago Law School trailed Columbia, in second and third.
• Graduates of the 33 lowest-ranking law schools earn less than $55,000 net of debt four years after graduation.

While it is well-known that most law school graduates will earn a large paycheck, a new study explores whether the amount of debt accrued makes the degree worth it, ranking law schools based on the amount their graduates earn after subtracting the average amount spent on loan repayment.

For all law school graduates, median earnings four years after graduation are around $88,800, but after factoring in student debt, median earnings drop to $72,000, according to the report , released Tuesday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). On average, tuition and fees ranged from $38,100 to more than $70,000 from 2020 to 2021, with law school graduates accumulating $118,500 in debt at the median while obtaining their J.D., the report states.

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