Talk:Lawyer

Merge from Advocate

Merge Advocate to this article because they're same profession. Capankajsmilyo^{(Talk | Infobox assistance)} 09:00, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

No, they're not, at least not in all jurisdictions. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:30, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Concur. In many jurisdictions, the advocate is one of several distinct legal professions (or jurists). --Coolcaesar (talk) 20:29, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

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Pronunciation

I suggest having an IPA guide to show pronunciation, since the pronunciation can vary with accents. This would help non native speakers. 2600:8801:FB13:6B00:3C45:3596:BD2C:D49E (talk) 22:47, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Pro bono in Germany

The article suggests pro bono is illegal in Germany (Compensation, third paragraph). This is not true - whilst German lawyers are bound by the Federal Lawyers' Act (BRAO) and the Professional Code of Conduct for Lawyers (BORA), which include provisions generally requiring lawyers to charge for their services (§49b BRAO), German lawyers are allowed to work pro bono in specific circumstances, such as: (i) cases of extreme financial hardship where clients cannot afford legal fees and do not qualify for state-funded legal aid; or (ii) legal work for charitable or public interest purposes, such as non-profit organizations. The key is that the lawyer's decision to waive fees must not violate professional standards or create unfair competition. 193.104.164.123 (talk) 18:18, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Google suggests you're right, and that source is old enough that things may have changed. I'll strike that clause. Alyo (chat·edits) 18:32, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Linguistics in the Digital Age

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 15 January 2025 and 9 May 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Fdietz21 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by FblthpTheLost (talk) 00:10, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Problematic sentence on compensation

The first sentence under compensation says the following: "In the United States, lawyers typically earn between $100,000 and $220,000 per year, although earnings vary by age, experience, and practice setting."

Does anyone else see the problematic and logically unsound issue with this sentence? In the United States especially, lawyer salaries vary greatly, depending on year of call, work environment/firm/institution, school graduated from, and a million other factors that are holistically connected. Some of the sources mention this, so to say they vary so greatly based on multiple different factors but then give a vague range is completely illogical. I decided to avoid being bold and removing this sentence because of it's references so I thought I would bring it here for discussion first. I should additionally point out that $100,000 - $220,000 is a massive range so for this to be designated as the "average" (see the word "typically"that was used) is weird to claim, particularly if we combine it with the second half of the sentence that gives the "variation" caveat. HarvardJock🏫 (talk) 23:10, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

@HarvardJock I think you can be bold. The sources here are a variety of surveys and reports, so us having a hard range in Wikivoice is WP:synthesis/OR. I would support a topic sentence that said something more to the effect of "Lawyers are one of the more highly-paid professions in the country", or something similar. There could also be a sentence about average big law starting salaries, which is probably around the 200k mark. And maybe there is similar sourcing about public interest lawyers. But yeah, there's a lot of problems with the sentence as written. Alyo (chat·edits) 17:34, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Here's a citation with a number for overall median as of 2024, which might be worth including. Alyo (chat·edits) 17:36, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the ping. I'll be bold and remove the sentence for now and then later on I'll add something on compensation, I'll probably go for what you're proposing. HarvardJock🏫 (talk) 22:16, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

I added better sentences on lawyer compensation after removing the faulty phrase that was the subject of my original post here. I used the source you provided plus a BLS stat. Feel free to adjust as you see fit, if you wish to do so. I think, at the very least, the current information is better than what was there previously. Also, that section is still a bit lackluster, as so far that initial paragraph I included only discusses general lawyer salaries and BigLaw. I'd like to find more info on lawyer compensation in other fields (say in-house, government, small firms, and so on.) for a more comprehensive view. HarvardJock🏫 (talk) 20:51, 23 April 2026 (UTC)