The idea you've raised of what a lawyer is "worth" is an interesting one to me. I have a friend working at a large firm who, in two heavy months, has billed hours sufficient for his firm to cover his yearly salary from his fees. The discrepancy between the market rate to retain him as an employee and the market rate for his services to clients is such that the firm will be reaping profits from his work for 80% of the year. This will not be uncommon among us in another 2.5 years. So what are we worth? I think it will largely depend on whether we think of our time in number of pages read per hour vs. number of concepts learned per day. It may be the only personally profitable compensation.

-- CarolineElkin - 01 Feb 2009