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I found starting salaries for immigration lawyers and am amazed as to how low they are. Any ideas why?

Follow the money. Think who the client is and how deep her pocket is.

nick832 wrote:I found starting salaries for immigration lawyers and am amazed as to how low they are. Any ideas why?

It's not glamorous work -- immigration cases are high volume but rarely complex; clients typically pay flat rate, and firms have to solicit institutional clients that are rapidly expanding in order to survive.

if you are comparing to big law, the clients don't have the same ability to pay

Because immigrants generally don't have the resources to pay a lot of money for legal services, and most public interest organizations working in immigration law are stretched extremely thinly when it comes to budgets compared to the amount of work that's needed.

I also noticed that many government jobs are underpaid. Their salaries are public record. Many of them are making 60k after working in law for more than a decade. I am like WTF.

There's no shortage of immigration lawyers, they are dime-a-dozen (since there is no shortage of TTT grads) and as already mentioned, the clientele isn't exactly high paying. To make a lot, you need to basically have a very high volume that usually comes from some institutional client that you manage to grab.

The only way to make real money in immigration is to work for Fragomen or one of the other large business immigration firms. The average immigrant doesn't have a lot of money, and a lot of immigration law services are provided by charities and public interest groups who have no money either.

nick832 wrote:I also noticed that many government jobs are underpaid. Their salaries are public record. Many of them are making 60k after working in law for more than a decade. I am like WTF.

That government jobs aren't high paying should be news to nobody. Now, consider that many new law graduates fight tooth and nail for government jobs paying considerably less than that.

It's too easy

unlicensedpotato wrote:It's too easy

Immigration law is actually pretty complex (unnecessarily so). I'd say it's right up there with tax law in terms of "WTF is this shit" type of stuff when you wind up having to look at it. The reason the pay for immigration lawyers is generally low is what others have already said--that immigrants don't have a lot of money. Many wind up representing themselves.

All that makes sense. And I understand that government jobs are generally low paid. However, consider that a teacher with 10 years of experience where I live makes at least 60k. And he/she did not have to go to LS and incur lots of debts. I was under assumption that lawyers got paid considerably more. Good thing that I am looking up actual salaries.

The pay is low because people there are scores of people willing to work for those wages.

It's a job Americans don't want to do

InGoodFaith wrote:It's a job Americans don't want to do

The good news is that as soon as we get that wall immigration firms are skyrocketing right to the top of the PPP rankings!

MaxMcMann wrote:

InGoodFaith wrote:It's a job Americans don't want to do

The good news is that as soon as we get that wall immigration firms are skyrocketing right to the top of the PPP rankings!

Public interest to 190 confirmed

Lol at this thread

as someone mentioned earlier, immigration law is usually flat rate and the clients don't have deep pockets. clients pay for different services, like filing an application or representing them in deportation proceedings, but there isn't so much of a drawn out legal strategy. despite the low pay, the work can be less stressful than other areas of law. to make money, you either must have a high volume practice that filters for clients who can pay or work with institutions.