Top shelf lawyer in DC bills out at $1,500 per hour.
Such a lawyer would not be involved in adjudicating minor-league disputes between civil servants and their bosses. The pay of $155K is just about what a low-level administrative judge usually gets in places like DC and NY.
I used to play tennis with a judge who heard disability cases at the bottom level of the Federal court system. He earned a nice living, but nothing like a hotshot lawyer.