Those are personal injury lawyers you speak of. In addition to getting a third of the fee, they also pay 100 percent of the case costs and they don’t get that back if they lose the case or don’t get a big recovery. It’s very common for case expenses to exceed 100k in a “big” case. It takes years for those big cases to go to trial, meaning the lawyer sinks 100k or more into a case on the hope that years down the road he will get it back. Also, the IRS does not allow a lawyer to deduct that 100k as a business expense. The 100k doesn’t become a “cost of doing business” until the case is lost. So the tax code fucks lawyers harder than professionals like doctors or stock brokers.
Many (maybe most) lawyers never break 100k in salary. Most lawyers never ever break 300k. My ex girlfriend worked at an injury firm. They started new lawyers (in 2018) at 45k salary. She was in accounting and made more than a number of lawyers at that firm. The partners each took home 500k or more but the peons scraped by. So fuck the greedy lawyers at the top of the pyramid but realize that (just like in most professions) the fat cats only get rich off the backs of regular workers who are just trying to get by.
Those are personal injury lawyers you speak of. In addition to getting a third of the fee, they also pay 100 percent of the case costs and they don’t get that back if they lose the case or don’t get a big recovery. It’s very common for case expenses to exceed 100k in a “big” case. It takes years for those big cases to go to trial, meaning the lawyer sinks 100k or more into a case on the hope that years down the road he will get it back. Also, the IRS does not allow a lawyer to deduct that 100k as a business expense. The 100k doesn’t become a “cost of doing business” until the case is lost. So the tax code fucks lawyers harder than professionals like doctors or stock brokers.
Many (maybe most) lawyers never break 100k in salary. Most lawyers never ever break 300k. My ex girlfriend worked at an injury firm. They started new lawyers (in 2018) at 45k salary. She was in accounting and made more than a number of lawyers at that firm. The partners each took home 500k or more but the peons scraped by. So fuck the greedy lawyers at the top of the pyramid but realize that (just like in most professions) the fat cats only get rich off the backs of regular workers who are just trying to get by.