"165K is not a lot of money in any US metro area."
sure isn't .... the new, top law school grads can expect salaries not far below a District Court judge. Said new lawyer might also easily have $100K or more in college loans to pay off.
In Roberts' case, I assume he took an 80% cut in pay to serve on SCOTUS. And am grateful he did.
How many successful lawyers with a family to raise are willing to do that? Unlike the law professors and/or deans judges and Justices don't get a break in their own kids' college tuitions.
And, as I recall, Mrs. Frankfurter died nearly penniless. The benes for Justices are really pathetic, given their importance to our form of government.
The market rate for first-year attorneys at top law firms (salary + bonus) was $180,000 this year--higher than a district judge. Law partners (as many appeals court and even district court judges could expect to be if they entered the private sector) often make over $1 million.
As much as some people wish to perform public service, it must be hard to take that kind of pay cut for an entire career. And for those who question whether a judge has ever declined an appointment over pay, that would be difficult to know, since lawyers rarely issue a press release when declining an appointment. On the other hand, J. Michael Luttig, one of the brightest conservative legal minds in the country, and a likely prospect for the Supreme Court, recently resigned from the Appeals Court because of pay. With his kids entering college (and the mid-$100,000s is a very difficult income range to send kids to college on, since you rarely get any need-based aid, while $40,000 a year per kid makes a significant dent on the finances), he left for a job a Boeing that probably paid well over $1 million.