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They also have very high overhead costs. Most law firms have very nice offices in very prominent parts of the city. This is not cheap so they need to charge a very high price to just remain in business.

From an economic perspective, you can imagine that a lawyer can typically bill 2000 hours per year. If the lawyer's salary + benefits + retirement contribution is 150k per year, they would need $75 per hour to cover this cost. Since the lawyer is working for a big firm which has high overhead costs and a goal of returning profit to their partners, the amount that they bill typically 3X their hourly salary (3X $75 = $225). This is why it is so expensive to hire an attorney. For large corporations, this fee is reasonable since they have millions of dollars at stake in an M&A transaction, IPO deal, or patent litigation. For regular working folks, this is often unaffordable. Due to the bifurcation of the potential clients (big business vs. everyone else), there is also a bifurcation on attorney salaries.