Lawyer pay ranges vary widely from location to location, position to position, and experience level to experience level. This means that a law school student should expect to make more the longer they have been a lawyer and the longer they are able to develop a community or company presence. Lawyers can make as little as $40,000 working for a small firm or independently or they can make millions in the right position. Students graduating from law school should expect to make between $50,000 and $80,000 their first year as lawyers, with many factors influencing these numbers (Levit and Linder, 66). This is typically enough to successfully pay down any student loan debt while maintaining a relatively comfortable lifestyle. In the current economic recession, things have changed a bit. Recently, law school graduates have become more of a commodity, given that student loans and opportunities have not been what they once were (Sterling and Reichman, 22). This means that lawyers can expect to make more than their counterparts a decade ago at a particular law firm. However, it also means they will likely have to work longer hours to get the same job done.

The skills required to become a lawyer are many, and some are not clearly defined as specialty fields require specialty skills and knowledge. Generally, lawyers looking to practice within a certain field that interests them will have some kind of past personal experience or interest in this field. Lawyers need to be highly effective communicators in order to create client and business relationships and to argue effectively in court (Joanes). Lawyers also need to be organized and disciplined, as many times they will be working on multiple court cases simultaneously (Dinovitzer and Garth, 12). Most importantly, lawyers need to understand that issues often times have no black and white moral definition, and should be prepared to argue for or take the side of a cause or issue that may not be...

More specifically, many law school students do not understand the huge amounts of time and energy required of successful lawyers (Forstenlechner and Lettice, 645). This means that lawyers can expect to work long hours and feel stressed as they are constantly pressured to perform well. But in return, lawyers are usually well compensated and receive benefits from their employers as well as respect within their community and specific field. Lawyers are also sometimes viewed as money-hungry and willing to argue for or against anything, regardless of the moral or social implications (Forstenlechner and Lettice, 648). While this may be true of some lawyers, it is also true in any field or occupation. Some people are inherently greedy, but lawyers often get a bad wrap so to speak.
Works Cited

Dinovitzer, R. And Garth, B.G. "Lawyer Satisfaction in the Process of Structuring

Legal Careers." Law & Society Review 41.1 (2009): 1 -- 50.

Forstenlechner, Ingo and Lettice, Fiona. "Well paid but undervalued and overworked: The highs and lows of being a junior lawyer in a leading law firm." Employee Relations 30.6 (2010): 640-652.

Goldstein, Courtney. "Professional Development - The Expanding Scope of Lawyer Training Programs." Law Practice 48.1 (2008): 34.

Joanes, Steven. Personal Interview, Conducted October 3, 2011.

Levit, Nancy and Linder, Douglas O. The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Munneke, Gary A. And Wayne, Ellen S. The Legal Career Guide: From Law

Student to Lawyer. Chicago: ABA Books, 2008.

Sterling, Joyce S. And Reichman, Nancy. "Symposium: The Economic Downturn

and the Legal Profession: So, You Want to be a Lawyer? The Quest for Professional Status in…