I am not sure that a lawyer's financial needs are necessarily equal to or greater than anyone else's needs (although after graduating from law school, most will have hefty education loans to repay).
But it is a misperception that all lawyers are wealthy. It makes a big difference what field of law one decides to enter.
With that said, there is an awful lot in life that is not fair. I personally think that teachers are underpaid and movie stars are overpaid. It is what it is, ajfarms1.
I am sorry to hear about your friend.
Things lawyers are responsible for in addition to their personal living expenses:
1) Malpractice insurance -- this increases every year regardless of whether you have any claims;
2) CLE credits -- need 24 or so every two years and they can cost $50-100 a credit;
3) Office rent -- that nice conference room and office you go to costs money;
4) Utilities for the office -- water, telephone, electric, gas, internet, cell phone;
5) Employee pay/benefits -- that receptionist that greets you gets a salary plus medical and other benefits;
6) Expert fees -- personal injury usually requires consultations with doctors and such in order to get an expert to testify and that costs money;
7) Storage fees -- those files we open on clients? We have to keep them for at least several years past the close of a case and because of the fact our offices normally don't have huge basements, many rent a storage locker just for files;
8) ABA/state/local bar fees -- many times these can be $1000 a year when you add them all up but they are a necessary evil due to the benefits that may accompany them (discounts on insurance, CLEs, ancillary services);
9)Law library memberships -- unlike normal libraries, there are fees to be able to use or borrow things from the law libraries;
10) LEXIS/Westlaw fees -- you can pay a monthly charge (sometimes $500 to $1000 for just a small firm -- 1 to 5 attorneys) or a per search charge (a couple dollars) in order to find caselaw and shepherdize it;
11) Health insurance -- someone pays for it and it comes out of fees collected.
Now if the attorney is not in a fancy office (works out of their home or the cloud) then they may not have all of those expenses but they almost definitely have 1, 2, 4(to a certain extent), 8 and/or 9 and/or 10 at a minimum. Certain things are almost definite. The bigger the firm the higher the costs. So yes, attorneys have lots of expenses in addition to personal expenses (the average attorney has $100k in student loans then include housing, food, clothing -- suits are almost a uniform that courts expect and they are not cheap, and all the expenses other people have).
