Non big law salary

[Law101]

Just applied for 2022-2023 school year.

There’s a lot of info on big law salary on this forum , can anyone give some information on the salary range for summer and articling students that work in boutique firms (eg. employment, personal injury, criminal defence …)? 
 

 

[lawstudent2]

NALP Canada is a good resource to look through (https://www.nalpcanada.com/Page.cfm?PageID=33). Mind you, the information may not be the most up to date. For example, Hicks Morley (a employment boutique) has a summer student salary of $1700 per week in 2021, rising to $1800 per week in 2022 (https://www.nalpcanada.com/employer_profile?FormID=3796&QuestionTabID=46&SearchCondJSON={"SearchEmployerName"%3A"hicks"}).

[Phaedrus]

That's a tough question to answer. Salaries outside "big law" and government vary considerably, and especially across regions. Small firm articling clerks on the east coast range from $30-50k, though I've known people who have accepted less. 

There's also the problem with forecasting into to the 2025 recruit; it's too far ahead to give reliable or accurate predictions. You should focus on getting into school first before worrying about how much money you're going to make. 

[Law101]

10 minutes ago, Phaedrus said:

That's a tough question to answer. Salaries outside "big law" and government vary considerably, and especially across regions. Small firm articling clerks on the east coast range from $30-50k, though I've known people who have accepted less. 

There's also the problem with forecasting into to the 2025 recruit; it's too far ahead to give reliable or accurate predictions. You should focus on getting into school first before worrying about how much money you're going to make. 

Thanks for the reply, I understand it’s still a few years away but I need to figure out how much money I could roughly make in view of the debt I’m going to incur. Financial is always a big issue to me (and my family) as I need to work several part time jobs to support my family and myself during my undergrad years. So I’m still in a position to struggle if  I should further my studies even I got accepted. If I can, personal injury will be my area of interests so  would appreciate if someone can provide me some info regarding the salary in this area.
 

[99problems]

4 hours ago, lawstudent2 said:

NALP Canada is a good resource to look through (https://www.nalpcanada.com/Page.cfm?PageID=33). Mind you, the information may not be the most up to date. For example, Hicks Morley (a employment boutique) has a summer student salary of $1700 per week in 2021, rising to $1800 per week in 2022 (https://www.nalpcanada.com/employer_profile?FormID=3796&QuestionTabID=46&SearchCondJSON={"SearchEmployerName"%3A"hicks"}).

I don't think you can find information on more than one percent of non-big-law firms in NALP. If you filter the search by city (Toronto), the search will come up with 44 entries, including all the big law firms.

Edited November 22, 2021 by not not a lawyer

[MapleLeafs]

If you're trying to plan on how much money you might make after law school, you can't. You can be making minimum wage to as much as $1900/week (if you ignore Davies) 

[Pantalaimon]

Purely speculating, but personal Injury might also be an area that varies even more than most, unfortunately. You have everything from slip and fall shops to fancy med mal boutiques.

[Law101]

On 11/21/2021 at 3:01 PM, Phaedrus said:

That's a tough question to answer. Salaries outside "big law" and government vary considerably, and especially across regions. Small firm articling clerks on the east coast range from $30-50k, though I've known people who have accepted less. 

There's also the problem with forecasting into to the 2025 recruit; it's too far ahead to give reliable or accurate predictions. You should focus on getting into school first before worrying about how much money you're going to make. 

My stats are lsat 167 and cgpa 3.91 so I’m not worrying about getting into school, it’s just financial issues worries me. And I don’t need to forecast 2025 salaries I just need to have an idea on the current salary range for non big laws, that’s all. 

On 11/21/2021 at 9:09 PM, MapleLeafs said:

If you're trying to plan on how much money you might make after law school, you can't. You can be making minimum wage to as much as $1900/week (if you ignore Davies) 

So how much is minimum wage for summer/articling jobs?

[Rashabon]

15 minutes ago, Law101 said:

My stats are lsat 167 and cgpa 3.91 so I’m not worrying about getting into school, it’s just financial issues worries me. And I don’t need to forecast 2025 salaries I just need to have an idea on the current salary range for non big laws, that’s all. 

So how much is minimum wage for summer/articling jobs?

They meant literally the minimum wage - that's $15.00/hour in Ontario as of January.

Edited December 6, 2021 by Rashabon

[BlockedQuebecois]

You also don't need to make minimum wage – you can be paid anything down to zero as an articling student, pending proposed regulation by the LSO.