The stats in this article don't sound right to me. Median lawyer income is in the mid-70s annually? Half are making less than that? They must be well hidden.
There are over 1,000,000 lawyers in this country. Many of them are in low-wage parts of the country, and are stuggling to get by like everyone else.
For every big-shot lawyer defending someone there is a poorly-paid public prosecutor and sometimes there is a poorly-paid court-appointed counsel on the defendent's side as well. But that's just the criminal-justice side of the courthouse, not the civil-suit side.
I graduated top 10 in my class and came out making $40K/yr with $50K in debt, because I chose not to work at a sweat shop that pays the salaries that skews the numbers in the first place.
BTW, in a typical big firm, of an incoming class of 15 associates, 3 may (stick around to) make partner, and of those 3, one may actually be an "equity" partner.