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Can't you arguably make similar groupings within lawyers?

I suspect even more so. Top school, law review, good federal clerkship, white shoe New York firm and everyone else.

(Of course, that's a gross oversimplification. There are lots of lawyers with, e.g. solid in-house corporate counsel jobs. But the overall "commodity" market for lawyers isn't great these days.)

And there are many lawyers who work on social issues like tenant advocacy that make a whooole lot less than, say, an M&A lawyer.

Those are trustfund lawyers who plan to join the big boys in a few years or switch careers(like running dad's business).

Many of them even work for local governments rather than in commercial firms.

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