NALP Bulletin+, May 2024
NALP's latest analysis from the 2023 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey shows that civil legal services/legal aid organizations continue to pay lower salaries as compared to other public service employers, such as public defenders and other non-profits. This is consistent with trends from prior surveys dating back to 2004. Salary figures for the 2023 survey were reported as of October 1, 2023, for U.S. based public service employers.
The disparities in pay for lawyers working in civil legal services organizations begin post-graduation and grow as lawyers progress in their careers. For example, the median salary for entry-level civil legal services lawyers was $64,200 in 2023 — more than $5,000 below the median entry-level salaries for other public interest organizations ($69,500) and public defenders ($69,600). For civil legal services lawyers with five years of experience, the gap widens to more than $7,000 and $16,000, respectively, as compared to these other public service employers. The pay differential expands further at the 11-15 years of experience mark, where the median salary for those working in civil legal services is $86,000, which is more than $20,000 below their public service peers. NALP did not receive enough responses from district attorney/local prosecuting offices in 2023 to provide nationally representative analyses and comparisons for this employer type. (See Table 1.)
The 2023 survey also collected new information about financial compensation for legal interns. The majority of all public service organizations reported that they had paid interns, but they were most prevalent in public defender offices, where approximately two-thirds of offices compensated their interns. (See Table 2.)
When making trend comparisons using the survey data, it is important to note that NALP received a smaller number of responses (129) to the 2023 survey as compared to previous years and because of this lower response, the data may not be as nationally representative as compared to prior surveys when respondent pools were larger, particularly from 2004-2018. Similar to the 2022 survey, this year's dataset skewed more heavily toward organizations in larger-sized population areas — with 55% of responses submitted from employers located in metropolitan population areas of over four million people — locations that tend to have higher salaries. Surveys prior to 2022 had a better balance between employers located in rural/small population areas vs. large metro population areas.
Despite the limitations of the respondent pool, the rate of growth in median salaries since the 2022 survey (reported as of January 1, 2022) was larger than the typical rate observed across most prior years. This is not necessarily surprising, as the United States was still recovering from 2022's 40-year inflation high. This recovery, in conjunction with continued rising salaries in private practice employment, as well as staffing shortages amongst some public service employers, may have contributed to larger than usual wage growth at public service organizations. For example, median entry-level salaries were $6,500 - $9,900 higher across the three different public service organization types as compared to the 2022 survey. However, the entry-level salary figures from this survey were somewhat higher compared to the overall median salary of $62,000 for graduates going into public interest employment (reported as of March 15, 2023) from NALP's Class of 2022 Employment Report and Salary Survey, and for which we receive more comprehensive coverage of entry-level salaries — an indication that the higher share of respondents from larger metro populations areas to the Public Service Attorney Salary Survey may be slightly skewing these figures upward. Nevertheless, both NALP surveys show larger than average wage growth for public service lawyers. (See Table 3 and Chart 1.)
Finally, the results from the Public Service Attorney Salary Survey, taken in tandem with its law firm companion piece — NALP's 2023 Associate Salary Survey — highlight well-understood, but nonetheless sobering distinctions between public sector/public interest salaries and law firm salaries. For example, the median first-year associate salary at a law firm of 100 or fewer lawyers was $155,000 in 2023, more than double that of entry-level lawyers within public service organizations. The median first-year salary for firms with 101-250 lawyers was $160,000 and it was $215,000 in the largest firms of more than 1,000 lawyers. Further, these figures were collected prior to several publicly announced salary increases by large firms in the latter part of 2023 and early 2024 — with some entry-level salaries now starting at $225,000. These $225,000 starting salaries paid by many large firms are beyond what even the most experienced lawyers can reasonably expect to earn at a public service organization and are approximately double the size (or more) of the median salaries of public service lawyers with more than 15 years of experience at organizations included within the survey. Thus, despite rising salaries at public service organizations, these employers are struggling to keep pace with the rate of wage growth in the private sector.
For results from prior years, see the Public Sector Salaries page.
| Years of Experience | Median | Average | Middle Range of Salaries (25th and 75th percentiles) |
# of Organizations Reporting |
| Civil Legal Services | ||||
| 1 year or less | $64,200 | $64,143 | $57,533-69,500 | 36 |
| 2 years | 67,000 | 68,477 | 62,000-72,102 | 37 |
| 3 years | 68,750 | 68,831 | 63,000-73,000 | 34 |
| 4 years | 71,000 | 72,778 | 65,280-80,000 | 35 |
| 5 years | 73,700 | 75,201 | 69,437-80,000 | 33 |
| 6 years | 75,974 | 77,521 | 70,768-82,000 | 34 |
| 7 years | 78,260 | 79,515 | 70,987-85,000 | 35 |
| 8-10 years | 79,860 | 81,353 | 74,153-86,000 | 35 |
| 11-15 years | 86,000 | 87,483 | 79,213-97,454 | 37 |
| More than 15 years | 92,000 | 93,790 | 82,500-102,102 | 33 |
| Public Defenders | ||||
| 1 year or less | $69,608 | $69,197 | $63,500-75,066 | 17 |
| 2 years | 72,966 | 75,578 | 67,000-81,728 | 16 |
| 3 years | 82,155 | 81,952 | 70,496-90,284 | 16 |
| 4 years | 85,455 | 87,826 | 72,000-100,000 | 14 |
| 5 years | 90,000 | 91,403 | 75,804-100,404 | 15 |
| 6 years | 89,665 | 92,734 | 77,476-105,637 | 15 |
| 7 years | 89,149 | 92,835 | 80,620-99,942 | 13 |
| 8-10 years | 98,500 | 96,646 | 85,000-109,811 | 15 |
| 11-15 years | 106,883 | 105,658 | 92,658-119,260 | 16 |
| More than 15 years | 111,779 | 115,108 | 104,509-127,463 | 14 |
| Public Interest Organizations (all specialty areas combined) | ||||
| 1 year or less | $69,499 | $68,907 | $60,000-76,200 | 35 |
| 2 years | 76,704 | 75,471 | 63,000-85,000 | 27 |
| 3 years | 79,082 | 78,686 | 70,802-84,500 | 32 |
| 4 years | 82,824 | 85,366 | 75,722-91,500 | 25 |
| 5 years | 81,000 | 87,161 | 77,766-94,500 | 33 |
| 6 years | 87,500 | 90,612 | 80,000-97,500 | 29 |
| 7 years | 92,046 | 97,538 | 84,670-100,750 | 28 |
| 8-10 years | 98,124 | 102,294 | 84,000-111,533 | 31 |
| 11-15 years | 107,085 | 110,802 | 91,183-121,000 | 33 |
| More than 15 years | 121,530 | 127,317 | 96,010-146,500 | 28 |
Source: NALP's 2023 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey
Note: All salaries are reported as of October 1, 2023. Public service employers reported average salaries within their organization for each years of experience range, as applicable. In many cases, employers did not have lawyers in each years of experience category. The “Middle Range of Salaries” reports the range of salaries from the 25th to the 75th percentile. Half of all organizational salaries fell within this range. There were not enough responses from district attorney/local prosecuting offices in 2023 to provide nationally representative analyses for this employer type.
| Does your organization financially compensate any of its legal interns? | ||||
| Type of Public Service Organization | % Yes | % No | % Not Applicable/ Had No Legal Interns in 2023 |
# of Organizations Reporting |
| Civil Legal Services | 51.2% | 43.9% | 4.9% | 41 |
| Public Defenders | 66.7 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 18 |
| Public Interest Organizations (all specialty areas combined) | 56.6 | 30.2 | 13.2 | 53 |
Source: NALP's 2023 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey
Note: Data on the prevalence of financial compensation of legal interns is reported as of October 1, 2023. Some employers responding "yes" may compensate some, but not, all legal interns. There were not enough responses from district attorney/local prosecuting offices in 2023 to provide nationally representative analyses for this employer type.
| Years of Experience | 2004 | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2018 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Civil Legal Services | |||||||||
| Entry-level | $34,000 | $36,000 | $40,000 | $42,000 | $42,800 | $44,600 | $48,000 | $57,500 | $64,200 |
| 5 years | 40,000 | 43,300 | 48,000 | 49,400 | 50,200 | 51,000 | 54,800 | 67,100 | 73,700 |
| 11-15 years | 51,900 | 55,000 | 60,000 | 62,500 | 64,900 | 65,000 | 69,400 | 78,500 | 86,000 |
| Public Defenders | |||||||||
| Entry-level | 39,000 | 43,300 | 47,400 | 47,500 | 50,500 | 50,400 | 58,300 | 59,700 | 69,600 |
| 5 years | 50,000 | 54,700 | 60,000 | 60,300 | 62,800 | 63,000 | 68,000 | 75,700 | 90,000 |
| 11-15 years | 65,000 | 65,500 | 75,000 | 76,200 | 78,600 | 84,500 | 96,400 | 100,500 | 106,900 |
| Public Interest Organizations | |||||||||
| Entry-level | 36,700 | 40,000 | 41,000 | 45,000 | 45,000 | 46,000 | 50,300 | 63,000 | 69,500 |
| 5 years | 46,300 | 52,000 | 53,800 | 53,600 | 56,300 | 59,000 | 65,000 | 78,700 | 81,000 |
| 11-15 years | 64,000 | 65,000 | 69,200 | 70,900 | 75,000 | 75,000 | 80,500 | 95,000 | 107,100 |
| Total Number of Responses | 415 | 430 | 658 | 572 | 423 | 362 | 347 | 197 | 129 |
Source: NALP's Public Service Attorney Salary Survey, 2004-2023
Note: All figures have been rounded to the nearest $100. Salaries from 2004-2022 were reported as of January 1 of the reporting year; salaries for 2023 were reported as of October 1, 2023.
Source: NALP's Public Service Attorney Salary Survey, 2004-2023
Note: All figures have been rounded to the nearest $100. Salaries from 2004-2022 were reported as of January 1 of the reporting year; salaries for 2023 were reported as of October 1, 2023.
