People who think that lawyers are a higher-paying profession are often outside the industry. Perhaps influenced by those foreign movies and TV dramas, they believe that lawyers, as a professional group, are glamorous, decent and well-paid. Of course, why do movies and TV dramas have to position lawyers in this way? The reflection in the mirror often has a real side, but it is actually magnified too much. Many foreign lawyers are indeed well paid and can even be called rich, but they are also a minority. From a general or average perspective, the income of foreign lawyers cannot be said to be very high.
And people in the industry often think that this is a high-paying profession. This is also because you can’t see clearly from within. In addition, the reason why people in the industry believe that lawyers’ income is not very high also reflects their inner pursuit of higher wages.
Over the years, Chinese law firms have gradually caught up with Europe and the United States in terms of hardware conditions. The service level and capabilities are also constantly improving. In fact, with the improvement of professional standards, especially the prosperity of China's economic background, the income level of lawyers is also rising. People outside the industry and even all walks of life have noticed that if a lawyer represents a case, a litigation case can cost more than 50 million yuan, and a non-litigation project can cost nearly 100 million yuan. I have to admit, this is indeed a sky-high fee. But it must also be noted that these are very special circumstances. Even top lawyers don't receive fees this high very often. Then again, although the income is not that high, it is not uncommon for lawyers to earn millions or tens of millions per year.
Compared to enterprises, law firms are still relatively so-called asset-light industries, with low investment and low output. Lawyers still appear as professionals, and there is really no comparison between lawyers and entrepreneurs. If you must compare, you should compare lawyers with their counterparts in intermediaries such as accountants and tax agents. The annual turnover of the entire legal industry is conservatively maintained at 100 billion yuan, which is only equivalent to the top 1,000 enterprises in China's private economy. On average, there are hundreds of thousands of lawyers in China. The average turnover per person can only reach more than 300,000 yuan. This is called gross revenue. After deducting the many hidden costs of lawyers, combined with the lawyer's ten years of hard work and high degree of specialization, the income level of lawyers is not high.
In fact, it is not very accurate to say that the income level of the entire industry is high or low. No matter which industry you choose, you will stick to it and make achievements.