Legal Commentary

According to this recent article, Latham & Watkins is reporting over $2.2 million per partner, an increase of about 20% over last year, despite the market downturn.  I know comparing law professor salaries to big firm partner profits is like comparing apples to, well, Porsches, but my sense is that most law professor salaries do not experience the kinds of increases we have seen in big firm private practice.  I can think of several basic economic reasons.  One might be the fact that there is a certain level of job satisfaction in academia that compensates for lower salaries, but I would imagine that, at least at the partner level, there is a high level of job satisfaction among big firm lawyers as well (though perhaps that's partly because of the money).  Another reason might be the monetary value of our respective services to our respective consumers.  Big companies are willing to shell out the big bucks for quality legal counsel; students are less willing/able to do the same for a quality legal education.  But there is a self-imposed institutional pressure to keep student tuitions low and as affordable as possible that is not entirely economically motivated (see Harvard's attempt here).  Is there something noneconomic going on here?  Are we institutionally afraid of being overpaid (or viewed as being overpaid)?