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Comment by ayngg | Hacker News Reader

Although average wages are around 75k, wages of lawyers are two tiered, the majority settle around ~55k and then prominent lawyers who went to good schools and were groomed to become partners make over triple that [1]. So it is a lot like other professional white collar professions like accounting where there are huge amounts of extremely overworked people in entry level jobs who were suckered into the perceived security of the profession and few that make partner and rake in decent cash, which is only like average FANG entry salaries, the only difference is that they have to go through a professional degree and often incur huge amounts of debt just to get there.

[1] https://www.biglawinvestor.com/bimodal-salary-distribution-c...

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> few that make partner and rake in decent cash, which is only like average FANG entry salaries

What entry level FAANG pays partner salary [1]? I need to apply.

[1] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Sidley-Austin-Partner-Attor...

Starting salaries are 200 to 300k at the best firms. Partners make much more.

Well-paid/experienced partners, yes.

Starting salary for partners is around 300k at a big four. That's true for FAANG starting salaries, too.

The only difference is it takes 15 years to make partner at a big four, whereas (especially with college-age side hustle experience) you can start with a few years of experience.

Oh, the other difference is you can spend a few hundred thousand to buy-in as a partner, as opposed to a 100k signing bonus at a faang.

The fact senior partners make millions doesn't change the fact about starting salaries. At that point you're comparing a 25yo to a 45yo.

Starting for partners is $300k at a big four but that does not include equity grants or profit sharing. It also rapidly climbs from $300k, especially if you can make it past the first 3 years. A senior partner with 10+ years as a partner can pull down $20M+ a year easily and would be a candidate for C-suite jobs basically anywhere if they decided to leave.

But making it into the partnership is more about playing politics than being good, so it’s definitely not for everyone.

How do these firms make so much money to pay these eye popping amounts?!

Are these the firms that do lawsuits against companies on behalf of a wronged client, client gets peanuts and “lawyer” fees eat up the sizable chunk of amount awarded in $xx,000,000+ cases?

20m is not normal. Look here, the top law firm makes 5m profit per partner https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_law_firms_by...

I should clarify, there is a pretty large split between big law and an typical career in law. Those that go into top (200) firms are starting as associates at ~190k [1] with partners making ~1mm [2] with a long tail end. However most others will follow a career trajectory starting around 60k [3], maybe less if they are public attorneys, moving towards ~150k [4] if they make partner in a smaller firm. Prospective lawyers are sold the big law dream but outside of that the career trajectory is a lot less enticing considering the upfront costs.

[1] https://www.nalp.org/0521research [2] https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/how-much-do-partners... [3] https://www.nalp.org/salarydistrib [4] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/partner-attorney-salary-S...

Aren't programmer salaries equally bimodal?

I don’t think they are as bimodal like lawyer salaries. I have no quantitative data to back that assertion though.

This is old data, and not really conclusive, but it indicated that things were heading that way in 2016. I don't know of anything that would have changed that trend, FAANGs are even more of an outlier now I'd guess.

http://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/

Dan Luu wrote a blog investigating this exact comparison and also didn't have good enough data to draw a strong conclusion.

https://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/

Yeah, you have this stereotype that you have partners at white shoe law firms who all went to Harvard or Yale and all the other lawyers doing real estate closings from an office in a strip mall.

In practice, there are plenty of lawyers who are in-house counsels for large companies, own successful law practices in smaller cities and large towns, etc. who make decent money often in moderate cost of living areas.

Tri modal in US (public sector and nontech companies, tech startups and midsize tech companies, big tech), except that any of the US citizen programmers can switch between any of the tiers

People are pushing harder to make programming more inclusive simply because it is lucrative (aside from more accurately addressing societal needs if it was more inclusive), but it already has some realities that are way more open than other lucrative professions

They're both trimodal if anything.

- People make the most in Big 4 law/tech firms, as well as a handful of boutique firms.

- Most people work elsewhere, making a respectable living but nothing extraordinary like the baove.

- Last but not least, there are folks working as IT/paralegal, who did not manage to break into developer/lawyer.

This last one is very brutal for law careers, if you did not manage to qualify or pass the bar the year you were supposed to, you've lost your chance for life, whereas in technology a formal engineering degree is not a hard requirement.

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