Average Law School Debt [2023]: Student Loan Statistics

Report Highlights. The average law school graduate owes $180,000 in student loan debt. Meanwhile, law school enrollment is on a decline from its peak in 2010.

71% of law school students graduate in debt.
$118,100 is the average amount students borrow just to attend law school.
$158,610 is the average amount borrowed to attend one of the top 10 law schools.
Fewer than 1-in-4 new law school graduates say their legal education was worth the financial cost.

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Average Law School Debt Statistics

In recent decades, the average law school debt has increased 4 times faster than the rate of inflation or about the same rate as tuition.

45% of law school students begin their post-secondary education in debt.
41.9% of indebted law school graduates say they owe as much or more than they did at graduation.
39% of indebted lawyers have postponed or decided not to have children due to their law school debt.
26.7% of new lawyers decided to postpone marriage or remain unwed as a result of their debts, and 51.8% have put off purchasing property.
25.9% of indebted law school graduates choose a job that will give them a better chance of loan forgiveness than the job they actually wanted.
100% of law school graduates from Western New England University are in debt.
University of Detroit Mercy law school graduates are least likely to graduate in debt.
Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles law school graduates borrow the most at an average of $188,160 each.
$46,010 is the lowest average debt among new lawyers, owed by 64% of graduates from Brigham Young University.

Snapshot: Law School Graduate Indebtedness
Institution	% Indebted Graduates	Average Amount Borrowed
Southwestern Law School	89%	$188,160
Florida A&M University	83%	$61,500
Rutgers, SUNJ	70%	$55,530
Yale University	70%	$143,440
Boston College	69%	$135,710
Duke University	63%	$138,380
Georgetown University	63%	$172,010
Cornell University	62%	$162,830
Columbia University	62%	$168,490
Yeshiva University (Cordozo)	60%	$118,800
University of Detroit Mercy	46%	$121,780

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Law School Debt Across Demographics

The burden of student loan debt is unevenly distributed among demographics such as age groups, race or ethnicity, sex or gender, and even from state to state.

Black or African American law school graduates loan debts are 97% higher on average than white law school graduates.
8% of first-year law school students and just 5% of practicing lawyers are Black or African American.
Hispanic or Latino graduates owe 49% more on average than their white peers.
13% of first-year law school students and 5% of lawyers are Hispanic or Latino.
On average, white law school graduates owe 17% less than the average law school student debt;
62% of first-year law school students and 86% of all practicing lawyers are non-Hispanic whites.
There is not enough data available to measure the average debt among Asian students;
6% of first-year law school students and 2% of lawyers are Asian.
$77,000 is the median starting salary for male law school graduates while women start at $73,000; this ultimately affects their repayment rates.

According to the American Bar Association (ABA), women and minority law school graduates bear an inordinate percentage of student debt, much of it due to income disparities. The ABA considers this an urgent problem and recommends law school students and practicing lawyers take the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which was developed at Harvard University as a method of gauging racial bias in test takers.

Law School Borrowers Unable to Reduce Debt After Graduation
Demographic Group	Same Debt	More Debt
Asian	11.4%*	13.6%
Black/African American	20.7%	43.7%
Hispanic or Latinx	14.0%	19.8%
Indigenous	7.1%	17.9%
Two or More Races	11.7%	18.3%
White/Caucasian	15.5%	28.9%
Unreported	14.6%	26.8%
All Law School Borrowers	15.0%	26.9%

*Percent of all law school borrowers who have earned a Juris Doctorate in this demographic group.

Student Borrowing and Repayment

The amount a student borrows to attend school is never the amount they ultimately pay. While student loans generally don’t require payments until graduation, interest on those loans begins to accrue immediately.

Some indebted students use 75% of their discretionary income to pay back student loans.
57% of students work while attending law school to pay tuition, fees, and debts.
94% of law students are working full-time within a year of graduation.
Most students grossly underestimate how much they’ll ultimately pay in student loan debt.
Just 23% of indebted law school graduates say their degree was worth the financial cost.
Degree satisfaction may or may not be linked to student debt; though the average medical school debt exceeds the average law school debt by 69%, indebted medical school graduates are more than twice as likely to consider their degree worth the debt.

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Federal Loans and Repayment

Students pursuing post-graduate education may use federal Grad PLUS loans, which carry a 7.54% interest rate for the 2022-2023 academic year.

$60,000 is the average starting salary for a law school graduate working in the public sector.
$68,300 is the average starting salary for those in the private sector.
10% of one’s gross income is the ideal amount to put toward paying off debts according to guidelines issued by the U.S. Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB).
It is impossible for the average lawyer working in the public or private sector to pay off federal student loans if they follow CFPB recommendations and guidelines.
A lawyer working in the public sector using 20% of their income will pay off their loans in 38 years and will pay $367,150 in interest alone.
A maximum of 36% of all income should go toward paying off debt, as federal guidelines recommend.
Graduates of the Florida Coastal School of Law borrowed an average of $145,245; their median starting salary is $41,280, giving them the worst debt-to-income ratio among all law school graduates.
It will take 18 years for the average FCSL graduate to pay off the amount borrowed, assuming 36% of their income goes toward repayments.
In that time, they will pay $118,900 in interest; that’s 45% of a grand total of $264,110.
Brigham Young University graduates get the best deal in terms of debt-to-income ratios; their median starting salaries are $65,457 while the average amount borrowed is $49,710.

$180K Law School Loan Repayment Timeline Assuming a 7.54% APR
Median Salary	% Income	Monthly Payment	Years to Zero Debt	Total Cost
$60,000	10%	$600	NA†	NA†
$60,000	20%	$1,200	38	$547,150
$60,000	36%	$2,160	9.9	$255,700
$68,300	10%	$683	NA†	NA†
$68,300	20%	$1,366	23.4	$383,850
$68,300	36%	$2,459	8.3	$241,850

†This payment does not cover the loan’s accrued interest, making repayment an impossibility.

Private Loans and Repayment

Private loan interest rates are generally much higher than those of federal loans. Some of them carry an APR of over 12%. There are very few statistics available regarding private loans because there is no centralized regulatory entity collecting data.

If their total educational debt all came from private loans, no law school graduate could afford to repay that debt and follow CFOB recommendations and guidelines.
Assuming an interest rate of 10%, It would be impossible for a lawyer working in the public or private sector to pay off their loans if they used 20% of their monthly income
Lawyers would need to make monthly payments of about 30% of their income to pay off their loans.
A lawyer working in the public sector making a monthly payment of $2,160 dollars could pay off their loans in 11.9 years
In that time, they will pay $128,600 in interest for a total of $308,590.
A lawyer working in the private sector making a monthly payment of $2,459 dollars could pay off their loans in 9.5 years
In that time, they will pay $100,010 in interest for a total of $280,010.
An FCSL graduate making monthly payments using 36% of their monthly income would pay off their loans in 38.3 years.
In that time, they will pay $422,010 in interest for a total of $567,260.

$180,000 Law School Loan Repayment Timeline Assuming a 10% APR
Median Salary	% Income	Monthly Payment	Years to Zero Debt	Total Cost
$60,000	10%	$600	NA†	NA†
$60,000	20%	$1,200	NA†	NA†
$60,000	36%	$2,160	11.9	$308,590
$68,300	10%	$683	NA†	NA†
$68,300	20%	$1,366	NA†	NA†
$68,300	36%	$2,459	9.5	$280,010

†This payment does not cover the loan’s accrued interest, making repayment an impossibility.

Law School Tuition and Fees

In 2015, the ABA launched a task force to deal with the national student debt burden, resulting in discount programs that have helped supplement student tuition level off the average financial burden in recent years.

$71,000 is the average annual cost to attend a Top 10 law school.
$50,640 is the average annual cost of attending a private law school.
Public law schools charge an annual rate of $30,920 for in-state students; out-of-state students pay $46,630.
$72,360 is the annual tuition at Columbia University, making it the most expensive law school in the country.
Students at Northern Illinois University pay $22,170, the lowest tuition of any law school nationwide.
The average private law school tuition has increased by $41,790 over the past 35 years; that’s an increase of 655%.
Adjusting for inflation, the average law school tuition has increased by $31,440 over the past 35 years.
That’s a 176% increase, with an annual growth rate of 0.5%.
Before inflation, the annual growth rate was 18.7%; the annual growth rate of the U.S. dollar was 4.0%.

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Sources of Financing Among Law School Students Who Didn’t Use Student Loans for Law School‡
Source	Usage
Support from family or friends	68.1%
Savings	58.9%
Scholarships and/or grants	58.4%
Employment while in school	34.1%
Employer	9.2%
Other	8.6%
Credit cards	7.6%

‡14% of law school students do not use student loans when earning their Juris Doctorate.