As a law student, I definitely saw this bimodal outlook. I went to a second-tier law school, but in the New York City area. At the time, twenty years ago, the "average" starting salary for my school was posted at $65k. But what you later found out is that the top students were getting offered $140k (Top NY firms), while everyone else was getting $30k (working for judges and small NJ firms). So no one was actually getting an offer for the average salary. Some of the top NYC firms would interview at my school, but would only interview the top 2% of students. Also, the reason the "spike" at the high end is so sharp and pronounced for law is that top tier law firms mostly all offer the same salary. If one of the group raises the starting salary, all the other top tier firms instantly match that new salary.