Reply to is being a lawyer losing its appeal compared to tech or finance for high achieving students?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Lawyer here and I would say yes.

First off there's just a ton of $ in tech, startups, the opportunity to make it really big.

Beyond that, the "elite" fields for lawyers (appellate advocacy, govt policy, etc) are just feeling very pointless. The Supreme Court is just making up whatever it wants (abortion was a constitutionally protected right for 25 yrs and now it's not?) and it's clear the exec branch can do whatever it wants as well. The whole "nation of laws" thing is feeling like a big depressing eyeroll in these circles.[/quote]

Generational, life changing money. Big law partners retire well but it’s not setup to make
Your grandchildren rich and protected from a life of toil and pain (basically the life of a big law attorney). Joining a successful start up or [b]ten years at FAANG [/b]can get you there. [/quote]

10 years at FAANG is no longer getting you generational or life changing money.  The stock prices are too high to start...I mean, if you join Amazon today, realistically how much will your stock be worth in 10 years...maybe 2-3x higher if you are lucky?  You would have to rise meteorically through the ranks to become one of the top 50 execs in the company to earn life changing money.  The early employees at these companies literally saw like 10000% returns on their options which you can only get by picking the next Google while it's still just a small company.

Also, some BigLaw partners are getting some fairly eye-popping paydays.  Here is from a recent NY Times article:

This is pushing up lawyers’ pay across the industry, including at some of Wall Street’s most prestigious firms, such as Kirkland & Ellis; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Davis Polk; Latham & Watkins; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Lawyers with close ties to private equity increasingly enjoy pay and prestige similar to those of star lawyers who represent America’s blue-chip companies and advise them on high-profile mergers, takeover battles and litigation.

Numerous people compared it to a star-centric system like the N.B.A., but others worried that higher and higher pay had gotten out of hand and could strain the law firms forced to stretch their budgets to keep talent from leaving.

“Twenty million dollars is the new $10 million,” said Sabina Lippman, a partner and co-founder of the legal recruiter Lippman Jungers. In the past few years, at least 10 law firms have spent — or acknowledged to Ms. Lippman that they need to spend — around $20 million a year or more to lure the highest-profile lawyers.

Last year, six partners at Kirkland, including some who were recruited during the year, each made at least $25 million, according to people with knowledge of the arrangements who weren’t authorized to discuss pay publicly. Several others in its London office made around $20 million.

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