I'm not a lawyer, but I work with three people who have law degrees (JD's).
Lawyer is a very broad term and like many college graduates what you do for the first 10 years after you get your degree may be quite different than what you do for the 10 or 20 or 30 after that.
Two of the people in my office don't actually work as lawyers: one is a broker/dealer and makes high 6 figures; the other is one of the big bosses (which means he does use his legal knowledge on a regular basis...it is part of the skill set that put him in the fancy corner office) whose take home is usually 7 figures.
The actual lawyer is a M&A specialist. His base salary has got to be $500k, put I'd put his salary in the comfortable 7's in the years big deals get done.
Keep in mind that none of us has a life that the average American would find "fun." 60 hour work weeks are typical, with 70 or 80 hours common. I logged 30 hours during my first week of vacation this year(June). It has been a slow year. <grin> I don't think I've ever seen the M&A lawyer take a vacation. (He once called them "boring")
