Skip to main content

Judges, Law Professors Among Jobs that Pay the Most with Most Time Off

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on January 09, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Everybody wants a career that has a great work-life balance. Most attorneys fail to achieve this goal. After all, when you think high-paying jobs that have the most time off, does "lawyer" come to mind?

Well, magistrates, judges, and law professors all make it onto a new list compiled by AOL Jobs. The list goes through the highest paying jobs where workers work the least amount of time.

Surprised? Here are the statistics used to back up AOL Jobs' claims:

  • Judges and Magistrates: The median income for our robed colleagues is $119,270. On average, judges worked around 37.2 hours per week.
  • Law professors: The median income for our law review article-producing colleagues is $94,260. Not bad, considering on average they work a total of 40.3 hours a week.

You might be thinking about switching jobs right about now. Granted, it'd be tough. It's not like you can easily get confirmed by the Senate to be a federal judge. You actually need skill and a strong legal background to get one of these positions.

So, what if you can't be a law professor or a judge? What other professions give you a good work-life balance with a decent pay? The other jobs on the AOL list include:

  • Occupational therapists
  • School principals
  • Librarians
  • Dental hygienists
  • Clinical, counseling, and school psychologists
  • Speech-language pathologists
  • Aircraft pilots, copilots and flight engineers

It might be time for you BigLaw associates to face it. There is no easy way out. You wanted to go to law school and be a lawyer. It's time for you to pay your dues -- and your student loans. Just suck it up, and bear the brunt of your 80-hour work week. Happy billing, my friends.

Related Resources:

Copied to clipboard