Fabulosity

Meet The Richest Lawyers In America (2014)

Which lawyers made the Forbes 400 list this year?

By Staci Zaretsky on October 01, 2014

Since the Great Recession, it’s far too often that the public hears tales of horror about lawyers drowning in debt. We think it’s time for a change of pace. There are plenty of lawyers out there who have really made it financially — in case you’re mistaken, these people aren’t millionaires, they’re billionaires. These people would laugh at the thought of people suffering under the weight of six puny figures of law school loans.

As luck would have it, there’s a way to keep track of these luxurious creatures. Earlier this week, Forbes released its annual list of the richest people in America, the Forbes 400. Each year, we pore over the list to find the wealthiest lawyers, and in 2014, legal eagles continue to make a strong showing.

Which lawyers made the list this year? Keep reading to find out…

Before we get to the list, let’s discuss what it takes to get onto it in the first place. From Forbes:

Thanks to a buoyant stock market, the richest people in the U.S. just keep getting richer. That has made it harder than ever to join the ranks of the 400 wealthiest Americans. The price of entry to The Forbes 400 this year is $1.55 billion, the highest it’s been since Forbes started tracking American wealth in 1982. Last year it took $1.3 billion to score a spot. Because the bar is so high, 113 U.S. billionaires didn’t make the cut.

Here are the 35 lawyers we noticed, in ranked order of their wealth. We took a broad definition of the term “lawyer,” which Black’s Law Dictionary defines as “a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law.” We picked out any person who holds a law degree, without regard to current or past bar admissions or whether they actually practice law (or ever did practice).

It’s worth noting that only one of these people is a practicing attorney. Can you guess who?

Joe Jamail Jr., whose net worth is $1.7B, is known as the “King of Torts.” He’s the only practicing lawyer on the Forbes 400 — and the poorest J.D. on the list. Please don’t feel too bad for him; we’re sure he’ll be able to get by just fine as he rolls around in almost two billion of his dollars in his free time.

Congratulations to all the lawyers on the Forbes 400. It’s pretty clear that a legal background may help you out in life, but it’s difficult to land on a list like this if you remain in law for your entire career.

Forbes 400: The Richest People in America 2014 [Forbes]
Inside The 2014 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures About America’s Wealthiest [Forbes]
Two Lawyers Are New Among Forbes 400 Richest Americans [Am Law Daily]