Florida is the third state in which a law degree is worth the most, according to a new study.
An Uplift Legal Funding report ranked New York first followed by Illinois where lawyers earn $188,900 and $158,030 per year, respectively.
The top three are the easiest states for the typical lawyer to recover from law school expenses, according to the study, compared to Idaho, South Carolina and Utah where a law degree is worth the least.
“Broadly, the states had a very low amount of variance in academic success, college life quality for a student and cost of living but they had substantial variance in the other metrics, such as emotional health, degree affordability and job prospects,” said Jared Stern, managing member of Uplift Legal Funding in California. “Those were the factors that most clearly separated the highest ranked states from the lower ranked states.”
The Levin College of Law at the University of Florida is the top law school statewide, according to the study, and that’s based on Princeton Review data sources.
But at least one law school professor questions the ranking.
“The only real advantage that the University of Florida has is its much larger alumni base because they were founded 90 years before we were but I'm sure the folks at the University of Miami, and Florida State would take issue with that,” said Bob Jarvis, professor at the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.
The Uplift Legal Funding report graded states based on degree affordability, financial aid, academic expenses, emotional health, loan debt, annual salary, disposable income, job opportunities and hourly fees.
“Wages in Florida both across the board and specifically when it comes to law firms and the legal community are somewhere in the middle to the bottom and more towards the bottom,” Jarvis told the Florida Record.
The typical lawyer earns an average salary of $158,030 a year compared to $135,840 in Florida.
Jarvis blames the income gap on regional disparities.
“We do not have enough of the big law firms in Florida and even big law firms that have Florida branches are not paying their Florida associates what they are paying their New York or San Francisco associates,” he said.
When it comes to job prospects, however, Florida scored 6.6 and under the health and wellbeing category landed a 4.4 rating.
The study further found that the Sunshine State scored 8.2 for degree affordability, 8.3 for academic success, and 8.8 for college experience.
"The typical law student is going to face considerable competition in Florida because we have 12 law schools," Jarvis added. "You would do much better going to a place like Montana where there's only one law school. There are very few lawyers, but by the same token, there aren't very many clients. Nothing is perfect."
Montana is No. 15 in the ranking.