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Not by you it isn't. Your friend is going to be making 2.5 times what you are three years earlier working the same number of hours per week. He'll be MD before you can say 'house'. Nothing beats an I-banker. Nothing.
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If you think "nothing" beats ibanking then you're about as ill-informed as the large, overwhelming majority adults who don't know what investment banking is. I mean, it's actually painful to read this post, because the combination of arrogance and ignorance just feed on each other. I'd rather work at a prop shop, in PE, at a HF, in niche VC, at an elevated position in a consulting firm, as an officer or even as a private, self-employed asset manager/broker for a few wealthy clients. Hell, I'd rather be a forensic accountant or corporate accountant with a tiny consulting firm--Sarbanes-Oxley = billable hours++. So would most other people, which is why those not on a "track" to reach director leave. This is not an industry with a high retention rate. The only retention rate lower in the field of "finance," I would imagine, is the first 3-5 years at the big 4. For most people, IB is a great first job, and they take it for their resume and go into something that is not a horribly painful profession with minimal job security at the bottom and, when normalized for hours worked, is not
that much more profitable than most other professions.
Also, becoming an MD isn't easy. Getting to associate isn't easy, and even getting into IB isn't easy. None of this is easy. Anyone who thinks this is easy will fail, just like 99% of the already self-selecting population that tries to enter the field. The industry is cyclical. Most analysts, and even associates, will make less than most software engineers this year because their bonuses hinge on the success of the firm. If certain tax loop holes are "closed" by the government many HF's will find themselves in a difficult situation, and people far more qualified than you will ever be will come looking for other jobs in finance--including IB.
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Don't corporate lawyers make comparable rates to investment bankers? Can any comment on the disparities between the two jobs?
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The profession of "lawyer" is overloaded, it's a supply/demand issue. It's a lot harder to become a well-respected, high earning corporate lawyer than it is to get into the "middle management" areas of finance. Being a lawyer, or a doctor, is incredibly demanding. Coming out of a school that's not in the top 10, more than any other professional or graduate school, makes it really tough on any lawyers who want to do something other than be a member of a smaller, private practice. Lawyers have the issue of competition, doctors have the issue of massive debt, declining wages, long hours at the beginning beyond lawyers and those in finance, generally understaffed hospitals and litigious risks.