[fshaun]

Good point, I was looking at it from the perspective of a client wondering "how much will I pay." As you say the lawyer doing the work won't be taking home nearly that much. I didn't know it would go as low as $20/hour though. My conservative estimate for a new lawyer in the US would be $80K/2400 hours = ~ $34/hr. How do the expected hours compare in the UK?

[rayiner]

In a big market (NY, Chicago, DC) at a firm working for corporate clients, you're looking at ~$170k/2700 hours. For a more senior person (5-7 years in), you're looking at ~$280k/3000 hours.

You can almost certainly make more on a per-hour basis as a contractor in the software sector, but lawyers are risk averse and prefer a stable flow of work and decent health insurance. :D