Living the dream ... Graduate lawyers surviving on bread and dripping ... The gap between charging money and earning money ... Barely Legal goes through her poor young lawyer routine
The most common misconception about lawyers is that they are loaded.
The modern fairy tale of a lawyer goes something like this ...
"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful lawyer who was trapped inside a fishbowl office. After only five years of hard work, she married a nice co-worker.
Together they bought a house in Mosman and lived happily ever after.
End of fairytale."
I did my research for this blog post (thank you Facebook) and the starting salary at top tier law firms is around $75k.
In the meantime, graduate lawyers at mid-tier and suburban law firms earn much less - at around $55k.
Don't get me wrong - $55k is not a small amount of money. An average graduate lawyer's annual salary is comparable to those of entry-level public servants ($53k), accountants ($55k) and bankers ($60k).
But the problem is that everyone thinks you earn a lot of money because you are a lawyer. And lawyers earn a lot of money?
So you can afford expensive meals and theatre tickets and get kicked off the family medical insurance - right?
Wrong. Lawyers charge a lot of money.
But just because the firm charges out my service at $250 an hour doesn't mean I get to keep all the money.
One of the perks of living in one of the world's most expensive cities is that I get to feel poor all the time.
After paying rent, HECS debt, College of Law debt, I have just enough money to buy toothpaste and toilet paper.
It is little wonder most lawyers live at home for the first few years of their career.
To make things worse, grad lawyers are surrounded by real lawyers who earn enough money to support their Cashed-Up Lawyer Lifestyle.
Some features of the Cashed-Up Lawyer Lifestyle include:
1. regular shopping at designer stores like Cue, Review and Veronika Maine where one dress = my weekly rent;
2. weekly dining at hatted restaurants where one main = my weekly grocery shopping;
3. annual trip to luxury destinations.
It's entirely understandable that I don't discuss my lifestyle with senior associates and partners.
I feel like the poor scholarship girl at a rich private school.
My dress? It's from the latest Target collection.
What are my weekend plans? Staying put.
Does the foodcourt count as foodie dining? It certainly does.
What am I doing this annual leave? Slumming with backpackers.
Dear real lawyers, if you're reading this, the chances are you probably earn more than grad lawyers.
So excuse us if we walk around with stains on our (non-designer) suits, demand cabcharges at 8.01pm and play with our phones while you pay for coffee/lunch/drinks.
Between paying back our ever growing debt and putting aside some money for subsistence, we are broke most of the time.
Having explained our circumstances so persuasively my graduate friends and I think we're overdue for a bigger slice of the hourly $250 charge out rate.