Which Lawyer Gets Paid the Most?

There are various areas of law practice. While some specialize in tax law, estate planning, intellectual property law or criminal cases; other specializations include family, immigration and medical malpractice cases.

The type and size of law practice can have a dramatic effect on attorney salaries. Furthermore, law firm size plays an essential role.

David Boies

Boies is a 1966 graduate of Yale Law School and internationally-recognized legal talent. Over his long and accomplished career he helped to break up Microsoft’s monopoly, represented Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 Florida vote count and won judgments that established gay and lesbian Americans’ constitutional right to marry legally. For his accomplishments Boies received various honors and awards such as Global International Litigator of the Year and Lawyer of the Year awards.

Boies has come under criticism in recent years due to his representation of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and actress Elizabeth Holmes, even after New York Times and New Yorker reports of sexual assault allegations surfaced against them. Boies has represented Altria, Apple, CBS Barclays HSBC Gary Jackson (former President of then Blackwater), the New York Yankees Michael Milken,Napster as clients over time.

Daniel Petrocelli

Dan Petrocelli, an award-winning trumpeter from New Jersey who attended law school hoping to become a jazz musician, has distinguished himself as an exceptional trial lawyer. Now an associate partner at O’Melveny & Myers’ Los Angeles firm he often defends corporate defendants in high-profile litigation cases.

He first gained notoriety with O.J. Simpson by winning a $33.5 million judgement against him for the murders of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994 civil death case, peppering Simpson in a 13-day deposition with over 280 questions.

More recently, he has represented the families of Ezra Blount and two other Dallas victims of the 2015 explosion at the Texas State Fair, Unocal in a groundbreaking human rights case involving its partnership with Myanmar’s military junta over a pipeline, Disney and Manny Pacquiao among other clients.

William Rehnquist

After serving as an Air Corps weather observer in North Africa during World War II, Rehnquist returned to school on the GI Bill and earned both a B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University on his GI Bill benefits. He attended law school and graduated first in his class before marrying Natalie “Nan” Cornell in 1953 and starting a new life in Phoenix where, following Justice Frankfurter’s advice that conservatives become politically active; Rehnquist quickly joined his Republican Party officialship while criticizing civil rights laws such as busing to achieve school integration.

Rehnquist was known for his strong convictions and formidable intellect – yet, according to him, leadership earned him more money.

In his first year as chief justice, he called for federal judges to receive significant pay increases compared to salaries offered to experienced partners in private firms and stated they were too low in comparison.

Kenneth Starr

Starr was the son of a pastor, selling bibles door-to-door in Texas towns to make money for law school. Upon graduation from George Washington University and Brown, he clerked for a judge on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals before serving as counsel to the attorney general; later serving as solicitor general during President George H.W. Bush’s first term and arguing 25 cases before the Supreme Court.

Now, however, Starr, who turned 76 this past February, is perhaps best remembered for three episodes from his long legal career: investigating Watergate; defending billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein against criminal prosecution; and serving as president of Baylor University from 1993 until his resignation following revelations of widespread sexual assault by students. Starr earned more than $5 million per year including base and nontaxable pay; in addition he received millions in severance payments, tax gross-ups, cashed out vacation time expenses fellowship dues awards among others. His office paid $1.5 million to private investigators while paying $843,000 as advice on legal and ethical matters from experts in their legal and ethical advice services alone.