re: How many lawyers do you know and are they wealthy?

I know many and no.

Being a lawyer is just like any other self employed business. Some are very successful. Most thrive in that midrange. And some are barley getting by.

I know a few. I now one whose head of legal for a nerve petrol company and makes bank. Most make a good amount in the 6 figures.
Anther who does mostly traffic court mashed average Joe money.

I know 2 personally. 1 is a cousin, 1 is a friend. Not 100% sure of their financial status but, they seem to live VERY well. Big houses, expensive cars and travel around the world.

My best friend's little brother is an attorney who does medical and civil (car accidents) lawsuits. He makes about 100k a year. He went to law school in New Orleans (was one of the group that missed the bar). I think he has 150 ish in law school debt, and his student loan payment is almost as much as his mortgage.

He is comfortable because his wife works, but he is not rich.

Ironic is that he is one of the nicest, most genuine humans I have ever known.

I know endless amounts of attorneys, you'd have to define wealthy.

I don't know more than a couple who have anything resembling generational wealth. I know a lot who have high incomes (1M+) and a few who have some multiple of that. I know a few high end PI attorneys who handle small caseloads and will score pretty large verdicts/settlements (10M+) so they do very well but obviously it varies more.

Most of my friends are commercial litigators or transactional attorneys who probably make several hundred k to the low 1.XXs, but most also live in expensive areas and do private school and aren't living drastically dissimilar lives to normal upper middle class folks. Vacation homes, nannies, nice travel - but not so much in the private jet, live-in help, etc. category.

I'd say the "wealthy" part is pretty subjective. A lot of people would say someone making $250 - 500k per year is wealthy, but that's not the case. In that income range, you can buy most of what you want and not worry about a budget, but you're not vacationing in Monte Carlo every other weekend or owning a yacht. Wealthy would need to be in excess of a couple of mill per year imo.

My last lawyer was also a partner in an accounting firm. Recently retired from the accounting firm, but still doing a little lawyering. He’s doing real good.

Current lawyer seems to be upper middle class getting close to retirement.

My wife has a cousin that’s a lawyer that’s probably late 50’s and he’s doing well. Owns a plane and a beach house. Like Cessna 205 and Dauphin Island, not twin engine and Rosemary Beach… But I’m still gonna call him doing just fine.

On the other end of the spectrum, his daughter is also a lawyer, and the high majority of her life is funded by her dad, or at least getting a lot of help… Made sure they had the down payment for a house in the right neighborhood, giving them a suburban when dad got done with it, selling them her mom’s Lexus GX with 15k miles for 15k dollars, etc.

quote:

---

Define wealthy

---

$50 million net worth is wealthy.

quote:

---

First year associates are starting at 110k -140k in Houston.

---

the big firms pay much higher than that - like $225k per year

Most lawyers I know are well off - but I know there are a bunch that don't make much. Those are the ones that end up trying to get elected to be judges in Texas. They make less than a first-year associate at the big firms but more than working at the DA.