A ton of my Harvard Law friends, like me, started out at power firms and are now self-employed, either as lawyers or something else. This is the best way to get, or approach, the best of both worlds. I’m not making what I would had I stuck it out and made partner at the firm, but I bill out my time at roughly the rate my peers command, with near-total control over how much, when, and where I work. And I love my work! My friends who started their own small firms have a lot of the same advantages.
Some of my friends who are partners at big firms have worked out systems that work for them and their clients that make their lifestyles much more sustainable — for example, they work 12+ hours in person M-Th every week, but their Friday night-Sunday night time is sacrosanct and they will answer only the most urgent emails or calls. They delegate more junior lawyers to take weekend client contacts and only involve them on matters that cannot wait and that no one else on the team can handle. This would still be too much for me, but it’s great for them (and allows them to afford a gorgeous weekend home that they enjoy year-round).