The next time you talk to a disgruntled associate, you might want to show them how the other 80 percent of their peer group is paid. Despite the attention drawn to the associate salary wars occurring among large law firms, a study by NALP shows a dramatic difference in the actual salaries paid to new lawyers. The survey for law school graduates in the class of 2006 reminds us that there are really two recruiting markets in the U.S. Of approximately 36,000 graduates in 2006, 75.3 percent obtained jobs for which bar admission was required. But, of those graduates, only 20 percent took jobs with law firms of 100 or more attorneys. The graph below is based on 22,665 salaries with a few extremely high and low salaries excluded for clarity. The first peak reflects salaries of $40,000 and $50,000 (each representing about 11% of the reported salaries). The second peaks are at $135,000 (10% of reported salaries) and $145,000 (7% of reported salaries).