Average salary for a lawyer isn't that different than for a software engineer (slightly higher). Doctor's average on the other hand is more than double.
if you are one, you are not the other (type of lawyer), in same vein as dentist will never be GP or neurosurgeon or dermatologist and vice versa. you also don't see linux admins leading development of some software projects
Not really. They all went to law school and passed the bar. Of course, there are tiers of school, class rank, and clerkships that perform a sorting function. Law has pretty strong credentialing mechanism.
any lawyer you try to hire in the bay area will be charging you $700+ per hour. doesn't matter if they work for a big law firm or not. the lowest I ever paid a lawyer was $400 per hour.