Now, About the Fee . . .

Anyone who has paid a lawyer's bill lately may be forgiven if he thinks that lawyers make a great deal of money. But according to a survey conducted for the Philadelphia Bar Association, most members of the legal profession would probably disagree. About 60% of all practicing lawyers in the U.S. operate on their own in one-man offices, and in this go-it-alone group the average income comes to only about $8,000 a year. Dentists without partners average $12,000, and medical doctors more than $18,000.

The way to prosper at law, it appears, is to belong to a firm, the bigger the better. In Philadelphia, the median income of lawyers who work by themselves is $11,000 a year. In partnerships of two or three lawyers, the median rises to $15,000. With four or five in the firm, the figure is $17,000. In firms where the roster of partners runs to twelve or more lawyers, median income reaches upward to a level that many a successful doctor might find impressive--$28,500 a year.

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