When I graduated from a top 25 lawschool 2 years ago, I had MANY classmates facing employment situations paying $40k or less. Public defenders, state attorney's office, district attorneys, small practice/solo practitioners, legal aid, etc. The most that anyone was going to make with a somewhat normal work life (50 hrs/wk +-) was around $65000. Plenty of folks took the $100k/yr jobs where you sell your soul (or $135k/yr in big cities) and work dawn till dusk 6-7 days/wk.
I chose not to practice law and work as an engineer instead. My after tax earnings, on an hourly basis, are probably pretty close to what my counterparts are making in law. I can say that I had an offer to work for a small law firm of 10 attorneys in a small/midsize town in Virginia for ~50 hrs/wk for $45000/yr (a little less than what I started at with 0 yrs experience at an engineering firm). Let's just say I didn't need a spreadsheet to figure out that I needed to decline that job offer!
But slaving away for a big firm for $100k+/yr and banking most of it for a few years would be a great way to kick start a FIRE plan (if you can put your life on pause for that time period).