"Law firms went through this cycle twenty years ago."
The reference was to new law grads 20 years ago getting $120k jobs. That indeed was a high starting point for most recent grads from most fields 20 years ago.
agreed, but this is IMO qualitatively different from a 50mil salary. The $120k job might be classified as normal competition for talent and therefor be outside the scope of what this article is talking about (astronomical salaries).