How high is the ceiling for what a corporate lawyer can make?

[garret]

We've all heard of the tort stars like Joe Jamail (net worth 1.5 billion), the young and unemployed recent law graduates with bleak prospects in the worst market for legal services since the 1994, and the majority of the legal profession scraping by on 50K-60K a year.

All of this aside, little attention seems to be given to the highest paid of the highest paid in the world of BigLaw (firms like Ropes & Gray, Watchell & Lipton, or Gibson Dunn). What is the ceiling for what the highest paid lawyers at these firms can earn? I know that David Boies earns about $5 million dollars a year (great but hardly on the same level as a hedge fund or private equity wizards).

Do David Boies and Fred Bartlit Jr. (6.5 million a year) stand on the frontier of what a corporate lawyer can make, or are there managing partners at Ropes and Gibson Dunn that are making salaries on par with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies?