over the past few years as the manhattan realestate broker lisa lippman took her wellheeled clients through 7 millionplus apartments with central park views and amenities including squash courts and lap pools she noticed a change it was no longer bankers making a lot 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 a former lawyer said “if i had to pick my favorite buyers it would be bigtime lawyers” while bankers used to make multiples of what lawyers did the lawyers have been zooming ahead thanks to stagnant banker pay for all but the very top performers and changing dynamics at law firms the trend took hold well before the recent slowdown in deal making dented banker pay the wall street journal spoke to more than 30 compensation experts bankers and lawyers and reviewed pay data over more than 15 years managing directors who aren’t in highranking 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 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 an elite group of partners who bring in exceptional amounts of business are earning north of 15 million at a handful of firms including wachtell lipton rosen  katz kirkland  ellis and paul weiss rifkind wharton  garrison “things have changed” said mark rosen a longtime legal recruiter “lawyer compensation has grown unbelievably” in 2000 when rob kindler an established deals lawyer left the whiteshoe law firm cravath swaine  moore to get into banking a journal story said he could make around five times as much money at an investment bank earlier this month kindler 69 left morgan stanley to join the law firm paul weiss there he stands to make upward of 10 million a year depending on performance likely more than he was earning at morgan stanley lawyers and bankers are the linchpins of wall street working in tandem to facilitate all manner of maneuvers for the world’s biggest companies specialists in both professions help clients raise money do deals and ward off unwanted suitors or investors the reasons for the shifting fortunes between the two groups are varied no longer relegated to simply marking up contracts today’s corporate lawyers are quasibankers serving as sounding boards for corporate executives as they clash with regulators or wrestle with thorny issues such as succession planning they have also received an outsize amount of work from the rise of private equity a client base that was nowhere near as active 20 years ago at the same time the lawfirm industry’s compensation structure has been upended as all but a few of the largest firms abandon the socalled lockstep pay structure in which partner payouts are solely based on seniority rather than productivity that has created a new era of bidding wars for talent akin to sports teams stretching their wallets to sign star players kirkland in particular put competition in overdrive over the past 15 years as it poached partners from other firms to jumpstart its business kirkland has offered potential recruits deals that could be worth 20 million or more annually for the first few years significantly more than most could make elsewhere most big law firms raise their prices by around 4 each year usually more than topping inflation according to owen burman a wells fargo senior consultant who tracks the industry banker deal fees while large are relatively static top lawyers currently charge more than 2000 an hour for their time some high performers at top firms earn more than 15 million and an elite few get well over 20 million paul weiss’s scott barshay and kirkland’s james sprayregen are often singled out as among the highestpaid lawyers on wall street jpmorgan chase chief executive jamie dimon by comparison made 345 million last year with most of it paid in company stock while standout law firm partners might bring in around 20 million in annual revenue superstars can bring in 100 million or more said rosen the legal recruiter the riches can come at a price advising companies at their most critical moments means the work is 247 rosen said it isn’t uncommon for his clients to work 18hour days on weekends one lawyer recalled being on a client call while posing for family photos at his son’s bar mitzvah bankers’ work can be similarly nonstop but compensation for most hasn’t continued the trajectory it was on before the 2008 financial crisis according to survey data from the recruiting firm bay street advisors bay street’s analysis shows that the average managing director at a top20 investment bank not leading a group made an average of 19 million a year over the past three years which included a standout 2021 compared with 19 million in 2007 and that is without accounting for inflation lowerlevel bankers are making even less on average than they were precrisis pressure from regulators increasing expenses and a move toward selling big banks’ brand names rather than individuals have all hurt pay while it was typical before the financial crisis for socalled bulgebracket banks such as goldman sachs group and morgan stanley to spend well over 40 of revenue on pay that figure is now much lower “every time the banks get wind in their sails we hit a hiccup and get set back a few years again” said kevin mahoney a senior partner at bay street who runs its investmentbanking practice it used to be common for bankers to retire in their 50s having amassed sizable fortunes that is less often seen now but don’t start shedding tears for them just yet their pay still dwarfs the median us household income of around 70000 a year and star bankers—especially at independent advisory firms such as centerview partners—can still haul in a healthy eightfigure payday or more in a good year dana cimilluca and alexander saeedy contributed to this article