06-04-2025
How much do lawyers make in NJ? Here are some averages across different attorney fields
Are you interested in becoming a lawyer? Or maybe someone you know is in law school and wants to be an attorney. If you want to join the legal profession, a big factor could be the salary, and in New Jersey, it varies depending on the type of law.
There are over 25,000 employed attorneys in New Jersey as of May 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Studies. The annual mean salary for a lawyer in New Jersey is $177,230.
The Metropolitan area of New York City-Newark-Jersey City has the highest employment of lawyers in the country, with 90,980 attorneys in the area, according to the same data.
As New Jersey has there fair share of lawyers, you may want to take a closer look at the salaries of the various different types. There are many factors that go into how much certain lawyers make, such as experience, if they are working at a firm or a solo practitioner and the type of law they practice. With that said, here is what some sites said are the average salaries for lawyers in New Jersey depending on their job.
The average New Jersey public defender salary, according to ZipRecruiter, is $109,171. While six figures is the average salary, 10% of jobs as public defenders make between $100,508 and $114,721.
The most common salary range for public defenders in NJ is between $71,574 and $85,786 with 24% falling in this range, said ZipRecruiter.
Public defenders on the high end of the salary spectrum make between $172,590 and $187,311. This is 12% of New Jersey public defenders, according to ZipRecruiter.
ZipRecruiter's report said Union City, Hackensack and Somerset are the cities with the highest average salary in the Garden State for public defenders. Union City's average salary for a public defender is $117,529, said ZipRecruiter.
There are several different regional public defender offices in New Jersey. The Bergen County office is located at 60 State St. in Hackensack.
Some cities, like Jersey City, have their own municipal public defender. These courts hear cases such as motor vehicles offenses, minor criminal offenses and other disorderly persons offenses.
The average salary for a prosecutor in New Jersey is $116,020, according to A majority of prosecutors in New Jersey have salaries in the $99,952 and $134,461 range.
The various salaries for prosecutors in different towns and cities in New Jersey are also displayed on
Municipal courts in New Jersey must have a municipal prosecutor within that borough.
Those who wish to become prosecutors in New Jersey can also work in the different county prosecutor's offices located around the state. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office is located at Two Bergen County Plaza in Hackensack.
Outside of criminal law, there are plenty of other careers to pursue as a lawyer, but those salaries may be more difficult to calculate.
An example could be a personal injury attorney, where ZipRecruiter ranks their average salary as $120,697 for an attorney in New Jersey. Many of these lawyers, however, generally work on a contingency fee basis, so their salaries will vary based on the percentage they receive from personal client winnings, according to LSAT Max Prep.
Other mean salaries for other types of lawyers include $237,370 for attorneys who work in management of companies and enterprises, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in May of 2023. Lawyers working in the federal government have a median annual wage of $166,030.
Indeed ranked the highest paid jobs you can have as an attorney, but does not take into consideration experience or location. The highest paying attorney was immigration lawyer, followed by employment law associate, personal injury lawyer, civil litigation attorney, real estate attorney, intellectual property attorney, bankruptcy lawyer, family lawyer, tax attorney, corporate attorney and patient attorney in that order.
This article originally appeared on Lawyer salaries in NJ averages by type of attorney
