Posted: 12/16/2009 6:36:58 PM EDT
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I just signed on a new tenant who is an attorney for the county public defenders office. Her credit is good, but she has a buttload of credit card debt. Being a "public servant", I imagine that her pay is on the lower end of what her occupation normally draws. What is the typical career path for someone in this position? Do they normally transition to a private firm after a few years? Just curious. |
| The ones I have known either burn out within three to five years and go into private practice or they stay with the PD until they keel over in Court. The previous posters are correct about the pay. Many PD's have trouble making a living if they incurred a lot of debt to go through law school. |
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What she makes depends on the jurisdiction. In Florida, a PD makes about $40K per year. What she owes in loans also depends on where she went. It could be as little as nothing (wealthy family, scholarships, etc) or well over $100K. I think the average law school debt is in the $60-75K range now.
The career path is hard to say right now. Some, by no means all but some, PDs wind up PDs because they didn't have the grades to get on with a big firm or US Attorney's Office, etc. Nowadays, she could be a top 20% grad or better and be stuck with something like this because no one's hiring. I heard of a guy who gradulated last year from Stetson and had to take a job as a paralegal because no one was hiring lawyers in the area. Overall, her situation is not all that unusual for a new lawyer. |