How much total compensation are the people making $160K getting? I ask because for many software jobs, salary is only a part of total compensation. I assume that's also true for law, which may make the distribution even more skewed.
[0] http://www.economist.com/news/business/21636751-why-big-end-...
There are a handful of firms that beat the market scale, but even more firms that pay less than market (mostly through below-market bonuses, rather than through below-market salaries).
First-year partners aren't likely to make 1MM+, but rather something in the range of 300k-700k (http://www.quora.com/What-does-the-average-junior-partner-at...). Average compensation of all partners in 2012 was 681k (http://abovethelaw.com/2012/09/new-data-on-law-firm-partner-...).