NALP Bulletin, October 2015
NALP's biennial Law School Career Services Survey was conducted earlier this year, using a survey instrument that was considerably shorter than in prior years and that focused on the topics of greatest interest to members — salaries and staffing levels.
Surveys returned by 102 schools revealed that salaries have been essentially flat since the 2013 survey. The median salary for the primary career services professional was $88,000 as of May 1, 2015, and the average was about $94, 900, compared to a median of $89,000 and an average of $94,250 in 2013. Likewise, for second professionals in the office, the average was unchanged at about $67,900, and the median stood at $67,500 compared with $66,000 in 2013. For third professionals, the average salary was up a modest $1,400, but the median was $56,100 compared with $57,000 in 2013. It should be noted that with the relatively small number of salaries reported, small shifts in medians can occur without signifying any meaningful underlying change.
Respondents to this year's survey were evenly spread across the country, and somewhat more than half were from private schools or small schools with fewer than 550 JD students. Collectively they reported on about 350 primary, second, and third CSO professionals, but not all provided salary information.
The full report on the survey findings will be available later this fall on the NALP website using your NALP member login.
Salaries for Primary, Second, and Third Career Services Professionals as of May 1, 2015
| 25th Percentile | Median | 75th Percentile | Average | # of Salaries Reported | |
| Primary Professionals | |||||
| Overall | >$77,000 | $88,000 | $110,000 | $94,892 | 83 |
| Private schools | 78,000 | 90,100 | 122,400 | 98,208 | 43 |
| State-supported schools | 75,000 | 86,500 | 104,440 | 91,326 | 40 |
| Less than 550 JD students | 75,000 | 81,000 | 90,000 | 86,167 | 49 |
| 550-749 JD students | 81,835 | 98,195 | 116,200 | 101,029 | 20 |
| 750+ JD students | 94,652 | 122,500 | 132,000 | 116,661 | 14 |
| Second Professionals | |||||
| Overall | 60,000 | 67,500 | 75,000 | 67,981 | 115 |
| Private schools | 60,000 | 67,838 | 80,000 | 70,472 | 69 |
| State-supported schools | 55,000 | 62,556 | 72,499 | 64,244 | 46 |
| Less than 550 JD students | 55,000 | 61,000 | 75,000 | 63,025 | 53 |
| 550-749 JD students | 62,500 | 70,000 | 82,500 | 71,087 | 32 |
| 750+ JD students | 65,000 | 67,838 | 84,000 | 73,424 | 30 |
| Third Professionals | |||||
| Overall | 50,000 | 56,100 | 66,900 | 58,733 | 73 |
| Private schools | 50,000 | 60,000 | 71,000 | 59,312 | 45 |
| State-supported schools | 51,900 | 55,579 | 63,000 | 57,802 | 28 |
| Less than 550 JD students | 49,999 | 50,000 | 56,100 | 52,182 | 21 |
| 550-749 JD students | 48,000 | 55,000 | 61,000 | 55,919 | 26 |
| 750+ JD students | 60,000 | 68,500 | 73,000 | 66,838 | 26 |
