In terms of money, that seems to be true.
I've recently read a Groklaw article that mentioned a salary dispute between two lawyers. Both claimed to usually charge $400 per hour. AFAIK even highly sought after IT consultants rarely get away with that kind of fees.
Maybe you haven't used a lawyer before. My lawyer bills at $200 per hour, but bills his time down to the minute, so its not like in IT where you might bill out for 8+hour days over a long period of time. Also, with lawyers a lot of the mundane work gets farmed out to paralegals who bill lower. So it's not like the lawyer makes $400 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.
Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.