Bill Henderson (Indiana-Bloomington) and the ABA provide a database on What Lawyer’s Earn:
In this, the first installment of a periodic series, we look at the geography of lawyer salaries, showing where the jobs are and what they pay. Using actual salary data reported to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on employed lawyers—whether they are associates or government attorneys or corporate counsel—we’ve mapped out average lawyer pay by county.
Highest Lawyer Wages (mean wage, # lawyers, # public companies, # law schools):
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara CA ($192,020, 4,130, 189, 2)
- San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City CA ($167,130, 9.790, 149, 3)
- New York-White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ ($166,130, 51,580, 580, 9)
- Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine CA ($157,950, 6,380, 206, 2)
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale CA ($155,120, 25,350, 359, 4)
- Modesto CA ($153,540, 530, 1, 0)
- Wilmington DE-MD-NJ ($153,520, 2,120, 25, 1)
- Washington DC-MD-VA ($152,230, 37,970, 146, 7)
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura CA ($150,850, 1,000, 31, 1)
- Chattanooga TN-GA ($148,350, 710, 10, 0)
Note that the payroll data do not include equity partners and solo practitioners.



