As you can see, there is a wide variation in the average salary per practice area, especially as you get to the middle of the list. The highest-paid lawyers earn much more on average than lower salaries. For example, intellectual property lawyers have a higher than average annual salary. On the other hand, an immigration lawyer has a salary at the bottom.
Quality of life isn't nice for big lawyers, but that's why they get paid “a lot of money”. As you can see, the disparity there is greater than the average salary between a patent lawyer and a divorce lawyer. In addition to the types of lawyers mentioned, the best trial lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers, estate law lawyers, and personal injury lawyers are other highly paid legal specialties. Lawyers in California's highest-earning cities were paid four times more than lawyers in cities with the lowest salaries in Puerto Rico.
As a general rule, in-house business lawyers are paid less than lawyers employed by large law firms that charge exorbitant fees.
