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On Wall Street, Lawyers Make More Than Bankers Now 在华尔街，律师现在赚的不仅仅是银行家
Superstar attorneys can rake in more than $15 million a year, while banker pay has hardly budged超级明星律师每年可以赚到超过1500万美元，而银行家的薪水几乎没有变化。
作者：卡拉·隆巴多
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Over the past few years, as the Manhattan real-estate broker Lisa Lippman took her well-heeled clients through $7 million-plus apartments with Central Park views and amenities including squash courts and lap pools, she noticed a change: It was no longer bankers making a lot of the offers. It was lawyers. 在过去的几年里，当曼哈顿房地产经纪人丽莎·利普曼（Lisa Lippman）带着她的富裕客户参观价值700多万美元的公寓时，她注意到了一个变化：不再是银行家提出很多报价。是律师。
“It used to be you’d say someone is an investment banker, and that was a big deal. Now it’s like meh,” Lippman, a former lawyer, said. “If I had to pick my favorite buyers, it would be big-time lawyers.”“过去你会说某人是投资银行家，这是一件大事。现在它就像我一样，“前律师利普曼说。“如果我必须挑选我最喜欢的买家，那就是大律师。
While bankers used to make multiples of what lawyers did, the lawyers have been zooming ahead, thanks to stagnant banker pay for all but the very top performers and changing dynamics at law firms. The trend took hold well before the recent slowdown in deal making dented banker pay.虽然银行家们过去常常赚律师的数倍，但由于除了表现最好的人之外，银行家的薪酬停滞不前，而且律师事务所的动态不断变化。这一趋势早在最近交易放缓之前就已经存在，使银行家的薪酬受到削弱。
Average pay for managing directors at topinvestment banksSource: Bay Street AdvisorsNote: Includes all class years. Excludes group headsand those who received no bonuses.
The Wall Street Journal spoke to more than 30 compensation experts, bankers and lawyers and reviewed pay data over more than 15 years. 《华尔街日报》采访了30多位薪酬专家、银行家和律师，并回顾了超过15年的薪酬数据。
Managing directors who aren’t in high-ranking leadership roles at banks make an average of between $1 million and $2 million most years, including bonuses often paid largely in stock, more or less unchanged from where it was two decades ago. 不在银行担任高级领导职务的董事总经理平均每年的收入在100万至200万美元之间，包括通常以股票形式支付的奖金，与二十年前相比或多或少没有变化。
Equity partners at top law firms, meanwhile, can make around $3 million or more a year—more than triple what they were pulling in two decades ago. An elite group of partners who bring in exceptional amounts of business are earning north of $15 million at a handful of firms including Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Kirkland & Ellis; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.与此同时，顶级律师事务所的股权合伙人每年可以赚到大约300万美元或更多，是他们二十年前收入的三倍多。一群带来大量业务的精英合作伙伴在包括Wachtell，Lipton，Rosen & Katz在内的少数公司赚取了超过1500万美元的收入;柯克兰和埃利斯;以及保罗、韦斯、里夫金德、沃顿和加里森。
“Things have changed,” said Mark Rosen, a longtime legal recruiter. “Lawyer compensation has grown unbelievably.”“情况发生了变化，”长期从事法律招聘的马克·罗森（Mark Rosen）说。“律师报酬增长得令人难以置信。
In 2000, when Rob Kindler, an established deals lawyer, left the white-shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore to get into banking, a Journal story said he could make around five times as much money at an investment bank. 2000年，当知名交易律师罗伯·金德勒（Rob Kindler）离开白鞋律师事务所Cravath， Swaine & Moore进入银行业时，《华尔街日报》的一篇报道说，他在投资银行可以赚到大约五倍的钱。
Earlier this month Kindler, 69, left Morgan Stanley to join the law firm Paul Weiss. There, he stands to make upward of $10 million a year, depending on performance, likely more than he was earning at Morgan Stanley. 本月早些时候，69岁的金德勒离开摩根士丹利，加入保罗·韦斯律师事务所。在那里，他每年的收入将超过1000万美元，具体取决于业绩，可能比他在摩根士丹利的收入还要多。
Lawyers and bankers are the linchpins of Wall Street, working in tandem to facilitate all manner of maneuvers for the world’s biggest companies. Specialists in both professions help clients raise money, do deals and ward off unwanted suitors or investors. 律师和银行家是华尔街的关键，他们齐心协力，为世界上最大的公司提供各种操作。这两个行业的专家帮助客户筹集资金，进行交易并抵御不受欢迎的追求者或投资者。
Kirkland & Ellis has hired partners from other law firms to bolster its business. PHOTO: MICHAEL BUCHER/THE WALL STREET JOURNALKirkland & Ellis聘请了其他律师事务所的合伙人来加强其业务。照片：迈克尔·布赫/华尔街日报
The reasons for the shifting fortunes between the two groups are varied. No longer relegated to simply marking up contracts, today’s corporate lawyers are quasibankers, serving as sounding boards for corporate executives as they clash with regulators or wrestle with thorny issues such as succession planning. They have also received an outsize amount of work from the rise of private equity, a client base that was nowhere near as active 20 years ago.这两个群体之间命运转变的原因多种多样。今天的公司律师不再局限于简单地标记合同，而是准银行家，在公司高管与监管机构发生冲突或与继任计划等棘手问题搏斗时充当他们的共鸣板。他们还从私募股权的崛起中获得了大量的工作，而私募股权的客户群远没有20年前那么活跃。
At the same time, the law-firm industry’s compensation structure has been upended, as all but a few of the largest firms abandon the so-called lockstep pay structure in which partner payouts are solely based on seniority, rather than productivity. That has created a new era of bidding wars for talent, akin to sports teams stretching their wallets to sign star players.与此同时，律师事务所行业的薪酬结构已被颠覆，因为除了少数几家最大的公司外，所有律师事务所都放弃了所谓的锁步薪酬结构，在这种结构中，合伙人的薪酬完全基于资历，而不是生产力。这创造了一个人才竞标战的新时代，类似于运动队伸出钱包签下明星球员。
Kirkland, in particular, put competition in overdrive over the past 15 years as it poached partners from other firms to jump-start its business. Kirkland has offered potential recruits deals that could be worth $20 million or more annually for the first few years, significantly more than most could make elsewhere.特别是柯克兰（Kirkland）在过去15年中将竞争置于超速状态，因为它从其他公司挖走了合作伙伴来启动其业务。Kirkland在最初几年提供了潜在的新员工交易，这些交易每年可能价值2000万美元或更多，远远超过大多数人在其他地方的收入。
Most big law firms raise their prices by around 4% each year, usually more than topping inflation, according to Owen Burman, a Wells Fargo senior consultant who tracks the industry. Banker deal fees, while large, are relatively static. Top lawyers currently charge more than $2,000 an hour for their time. 大多数大型律师事务所每年将价格提高约4%，通常超过通货膨胀率，富国银行（Wells Fargo）跟踪该行业的高级顾问欧文·伯曼（Owen Burman）表示。银行家的交易费用虽然很大，但相对稳定。顶级律师目前每小时收取超过2，000美元的时间费用。
Some high performers at top firms earn more than $15 million, and an elite few get well over $20 million. Paul Weiss’s Scott Barshay and Kirkland’s James Sprayregen are often singled out as among the highest-paid lawyers on Wall Street. (JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, by comparison, made $34.5 million last year, with most of it paid in company stock.)顶级公司的一些高绩效员工的收入超过1500万美元，少数精英的收入远远超过2000万美元。Paul Weiss的Scott Barshay和Kirkland的James Sprayregen经常被选为华尔街收入最高的律师之一。（相比之下，摩根大通首席执行官杰米·戴蒙（Jamie Dimon）去年赚了3450万美元，其中大部分以公司股票支付。
While standout law firm partners might bring in around $20 million in annual revenue, superstars can bring in $100 million or more, said Rosen, the legal recruiter.虽然杰出的律师事务所合伙人可能会带来大约2000万美元的年收入，但超级明星可以带来1亿美元或更多的收入，法律招聘人员罗森说。
The riches can come at a price. Advising companies at their most critical moments means the work is 24/7. Rosen said it isn’t uncommon for his clients to work 18-hour days, on weekends. One lawyer recalled being on a client call while posing for family photos at his son’s bar mitzvah.财富是有代价的。在公司最关键的时刻为其提供建议意味着工作是 24/7。罗森说，他的客户在周末每天工作18小时的情况并不少见。一位律师回忆说，在他儿子的成人礼酒吧摆姿势拍摄全家福时，他正在与客户通话。
Bankers’ work can be similarly nonstop, but compensation for most hasn’t continued the trajectory it was on before the 2008 financial crisis, according to survey data from the recruiting firm Bay Street Advisors. 根据招聘公司Bay Street Advisors的调查数据，银行家的工作同样可以不间断，但大多数人的薪酬并没有延续2008年金融危机前的轨迹。
Bay Street’s analysis shows that the average managing director at a top-20 investment bank not leading a group made $1.9 million a year over the past three years (which included a standout 2021), compared with $1.9 million in 2007. And that is without accounting for
Pressure from regulators, increasing expenses and a move toward selling big banks’ brand names rather than individuals have all hurt pay. While it was typical before the financial crisis for so-called bulge-bracket banks such as Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley to spend well over 40% of revenue on pay, that figure is now much lower.来自监管机构的压力、不断增加的费用以及出售大银行品牌而不是个人的举动都损害了薪酬。虽然在金融危机之前，高盛集团（Goldman Sachs Group）和摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）等所谓的大型银行通常会将收入的40%以上用于薪酬，但现在这个数字要低得多。
“Every time the banks get wind in their sails, we hit a hiccup and get set back a few years again,” said Kevin Mahoney, a senior partner at Bay Street who runs its investment-banking practice. “每当银行起风时，我们就会打个嗝，又倒退了几年，”Bay Street负责投资银行业务的高级合伙人凯文·马奥尼（Kevin Mahoney）说。
It used to be common for bankers to retire in their 50s, having amassed sizable fortunes. That is less often seen now. 过去，银行家在50多岁时退休是很常见的，因为他们积累了可观的财富。这种情况现在很少见了。
But don’t start shedding tears for them just yet. Their pay still dwarfs the median U.S. household income of around $70,000 a year. And star bankers—especially at independent advisory firms such as Centerview Partners—can still haul in a healthy eight-figure payday or more in a good year. 但不要开始为他们流泪。他们的工资仍然使美国家庭年收入中位数约70，000美元相形见绌。明星银行家——尤其是像Centerview Partners这样的独立咨询公司——仍然可以在好年景中获得健康的八位数或更多的发薪日。
Dana Cimilluca and Alexander Saeedy contributed to this article.Dana Cimilluca和Alexander Saeedy对本文有贡献。
Write to Cara Lombardo at [email protected]
