The Wall Street Journal has the inside skinny on who is making huge amounts of money, and it’s not bankers or MBA grads; It’s lawyers.
The financial newspaper reported in June that most of the buyers of $7 million-plus apartments with Central Park views are lawyers.
Some superstar attorneys can rake in more than $15 million a year these days, while bankers’ pay has hardly budged.
In the past few years, as Manhattan real estate broker Lisa Lippman took her well-heeled clients through $7 million-plus apartments with Central Park views and amenities such as squash courts and lap pools, she noticed a change: It was no longer bankers making many of the offers. It was lawyers.
“It used to be you’d say someone is an investment banker, and that was a big deal. Now it’s like, meh,” Lippman told The Wall Street Journal. “If I had to pick my favorite buyers, it would be big-time lawyers.”
Bankers used to make far more than lawyers, but the tide has turned, thanks to what the newspaper defined as stagnant banker pay for all but the very top performers and changing dynamics at law firms.
The newspaper interviewed 30 compensation experts, bankers and lawyers and reviewed pay data.
“Managing directors who aren’t in high-ranking leadership roles at banks make an average of between $1 million and $2 million most years, including bonuses often paid largely in stock, more or less unchanged from where it was two decades ago,” the paper reported. “Equity partners at top law firms, meanwhile, can make around $3 million or more a year — more than triple what they were pulling in two decades ago.”
The paper reported that some lawyers charge as much as $2,000 an hour and bring in $15 million to $20 million a year. But the work can be 24/7. One legal recruiter said his clients often work 18-hour days.
