lagugun

This isn't quite true. The current market bonus scale is 15k - 25k - 50k - 65k - 80k - 90k - 100k for years 1-7 (http://abovethelaw.com/2014/11/associate-bonus-watch-davis-p...). Market salary scale is 160k - 170k - 185k - 210k - 230k - 250k - 265k (http://abovethelaw.com/2007/01/breaking-simpson-thacher-rais..., market hasn't changed since 2007). So total compensation looks like 175k - 195k - 235k - 275k - 310k - 340k - 365k for years 1-7. (Most biglaw firms don't offer any 401k matching.)

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-...).

Yeah, it's becoming less and less of a good tradeoff for the $200k+ cost of attendance and 3 years of opportunity cost.

One funny thing about making the engineer-to-lawyer comparison regarding this salary fixing issue is that law actually has a much more obvious salary fixing problem, since almost every biglaw firm pays 160k and firms don't tend to compete for entry-level hires with compensation.

This is more or less accurate: almost all of the other top 10 firms pay $160k base with a $10k pro-rated bonus (http://abovethelaw.com/2013/12/breaking-cravath-announces-ye...).

Yes, and lawyers go into these hearings anticipating being interrupted with questions.