After years of law school and eighty-hour work weeks, attorneys hope to make a comfortable living through legal practice. Attorneys specializing in an area like intellectual property law may see even higher returns.
However, many factors impact an attorney’s annual salary; perhaps most significantly is where they work.
David Boies
David Boies has become known for winning landmark legal cases that make an impactful statement about society, while at the same time contributing back through charitable work.
Boies has recently become associated with both Harvey Weinstein’s sexual-misconduct scandal and Theranos blood testing startup. Additionally, he was recently criticized for hiring two private investigative firms to attempt to stop investigations into him; one firm employed former Israeli intelligence operatives.
Boies established his law firm with Jonathan Schiller and Donald Flexner in 1997. A top litigator, Boies is well known for commanding high hourly rates due to his work in the Trump tax scandal, an antitrust case against Google, and privacy lawsuit filed by Alphabet Inc’s Google; these keep him busy throughout their legal careers and often result in major wins with major societal impacts; furthermore his charitable endeavors can enhance his image while opening up networking opportunities.
Daniel Petrocelli
Daniel Petrocelli first came to national prominence when he represented Fred Goldman in his case against O.J. Simpson and won a $33.5 million verdict, which propelled his career forward and led him to leave the smaller L.A. firm that gave him his start for O’Melveny & Myers where he now heads their Trial Practice Committee and boasts an illustrious clientele list that includes household names in entertainment.
Forbes recognizes Petrocelli as one of the America’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers. He regularly represents high-profile individuals and companies in high-stakes litigation matters related to sports, securities, employment law and criminal law.
Last year, he played an instrumental role in helping AT&T and Time Warner overcome government antitrust challenges to their $85 billion merger, as well as representing Disney against allegations by literary agent Stephen Slesinger’s family regarding underpayment of royalties on Winnie the Pooh characters.
John Finley
In 1807, John Finley lived alone in a three-sided hut near Huntsburg along a stream. It is said he lived off wild game, potatoes and rice to sustain himself – John was quite the loner!
Finley holds a BS from Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and JD from University of Oklahoma; in addition to working for White House and FDA. As well as lecturing at Harvard Law School he also sits on its Committee for Securities Regulation as a member.
He previously served as Fox News Media’s Executive VP of Development, helping launch shows such as Sean Hannity and Life Liberty & Levin. Although replaced by Jason Klarman in February 2019, he continued working on Fox Nation programming until being fired from his position after an independent investigation found violations to company standards including improperly using his position to benefit someone over whom he had influence. According to Mediaite reports that an investigation revealed several instances in which his conduct violated company standards including improperly using it to benefit someone over whom he had influence.
Kathryn King Sudol
Kathryn King Sudol was appointed general counsel of private equity firm KKR last September to replace Simpson Thacher M&A leader David Sorkin who now holds the role of CLO at KKR. Her annual compensation is reported at an estimated total of $18.6 Million according to securities filings.
Sudol is one of the world’s preeminent corporate, M&A and private equity lawyers. She has advised numerous corporate and private equity clients on complex and high-profile mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, strategic investments going private transactions and leveraged buyouts.
Sudol represented KKR in transactions including its $4.7 billion purchase of Global Atlantic Financial Group Limited last year. Sudol, as part of Simpson Thacher where she is a partner, serves on its executive committee and headed Asia from 2010-2018 as global co-head for M&A practice at Simpson Thacher law firm.