Of the population that attends law school, passes the bar exam, and practices law, very few end up as corporate lawyers. And fewer still make multiple millions

Of the population that attends law school, passes the bar exam, and practices law, very few end up as corporate lawyers. And fewer still make multiple millions per year. You're comparing a very broad class (SV engineers) to an extremely small class (corporate lawyers who make $XM per year). It may be fair to say that the pay ceiling is higher for the best-paid lawyers than it is for the best-paid engineers. However, engineers can reach the same pay or much higher by taking on a management role -- CTO, technical co-founder, small business owner, etc. -- at which point, IMO, they typically cease to be engineer. Investment banking & hedge funds are another matter, and the compensation can be ridiculous. From Glassdoor: - Google corporate counsel ($188k salary, $215k with bonus) - Amazon corporate counsel ($180k salary, $250k with bonus) - Microsoft attorney ($164k salary, $224k with bonus)