In competitive L.A., the business of law gets tougher.

Lawyers not only have a sour public image to contend with, they're in an increasingly tough business.

More and more of them are chasing a limited pool of deals and clients - while at the same time trying to maintain the lifestyle associated with being a successful member of a successful firm.

"There are many, many more outstanding law firms and lawyers than 20 or 30 years ago. The competition today is enormous, due to the much larger number of people practicing law," said Marshall Grossman, nameplate partner at Alschuler, Grossman & Pines, a Century City-based firm.

Grossman, a 33-year law veteran who is regarded as one of the city's most ferocious litigators, feels the profession has become too obsessed with posting billable hours.

Even he feels the pressure.

"In the old days, I came into my office, answered the mail, handled the phone messages, and that was it - you had some time for reflective thought," said Grossman. "Today, I have a fax machine in the office, and one at home. We have personal e-mail and the firm's e-mail. We have call waiting. I have voice messages and a cell phone in the car. There are far fewer, if any, respites."

The fancy offices, the nice cars, the extensive legal libraries, the secretaries and copy machines - it all adds up to an expensive way to do business, said Grossman.

Paying the price are young associates, struggling to make partner.

"It seems when I started, a norm might be to ask a younger lawyer to bill 1,500 to 1,600 hours a year. Then, it was 1,800 hours. Now I hear of firms wanting 1,800, or 2,000, or even 2,500 from the younger lawyers," said Grossman, who noted that his firm tries to maintain the old 1,500-to-1,600-hour standard.

The pressure to bill so many hours tends to create "zombies or cheats," said Grossman.

Other local attorneys note the more-hectic pace as well, even as many say they enjoy the profession.

"Probably, the nature of the business has changed, in the sense that the business world has changed," said Brian McCarthy, a mergers and acquisitions specialist. "The time tables have become compressed, particularly for transactions. Clients want real-time service, and that usually translates into more hours."

Nevertheless, lured by the potential for high salaries and prestige - and none too incidentally, the Simpson trials and shows like "L.A. Law" - droves of Americans have entered law schools in the last 20 years.

In 1995 alone, there were 39,000 newly minted law grads from the nation's 178 law schools, according to the American Bar Association. Thousands more are on the way this and every year.

The blooming supply of lawyers is having predictable consequences.

Unable to latch on with a premier firm, most law grads join smaller firms, which constitute the bulk of the trade. And smaller firms; in general, pay far less than the high-priced attorneys seen on television.

"The majority of graduates from Loyola. as from most law schools, go into smaller firms. In 1995, the median salary for those that took full-time positions at smaller firms was $40,000," said Carol Ross-Burnett, assistant dean of career services at Loyola Marymount School of Law.

She counsels graduates to think realistically. "The big firms are looking at the students who graduated at the top of their class. But not everybody can graduate at the top of the class," Ross-Burnett said.

The figures from USC are somewhat higher. Members of the 1995 class with private-sector full-time jobs had a median starting salary of $70,000, according to Karen Lash, assistant dean of the USC Law School.

For those who do graduate at the top of the class, or at least near it, and work their way to the top of their speciality, the rewards are substantial: Of the lawyers selected for the Business Journal's Who's Who in Law - and who agreed to reveal their compensation - the vast majority reported incomes in excess of $500,000 a year, along with net worth of more than $1 million.

And, in a city the scale of Los Angeles, huge deals are consummated or disputed meaning sky-high lawyer fees can be earned by those in the right spot, or with the right reputation.

For example, Bert Fields, an entertainment attorney in Century City, bills out at $650 an hour. Dennis Wasser, a divorce lawyer, earns $475 an hour. Fees of more than $400 an hour are frequent, if not common, in much corporate and securities legal work.

The size of the firm can be important in getting referrals, or in keeping work inhouse, said some lawyers.

"I think the big firms are doing well in this market," said Joseph Giunta, a mergers lawyer with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. "But there has been some stratification. The little firms are finding it harder to compete, because the big firms have enough lawyers that they can specialize."

Indeed many law firms, regardless of size, have had to become more aware of the bottom line to survive.

Partnership tracks have lengthened at some firms, and many more are simply using "staff" attorneys - workhorses who seldom, if ever, earn the coveted partner title.

"Back 20 to 30 years ago, a young lawyer was trained, nurtured, there was a sense of apprenticeship. And the partners let the younger lawyers know that their progress was important to the firm," recalled Grossman of Alschuler, Grossman & Pines.

It was expected that a young lawyer would eventually make partner, he said.

But today, at larger firms, each year perhaps 15 to 25 lawyers will be taken on, with the assumption that perhaps one or two will make partner. "A young lawyer today faces a much different future. It's not unusual to work at three or four law firms in the first 10 years of practice. It's not good for esprit de corps," he said.

Some say that partnership tracks have lengthened in the 1990s - but they were longer in the 1950s and 1960s as well. "It seems to me they got shorter in the 1970s and 1980s, and now they are getting back to where they were," said Charles Bender, chairman of O'Melveny & Myers in downtown Los Angeles.

And, like many other professions, the need to specialize has intruded, with untoward results for those caught in the wrong speciality.

"For the most part, it's a continuation of a trend I have seen for my 27 years in the profession. Without a strong specialty, it is hard to attract clients," said Lou Reisman, partner at the Century City-based Weinstock, Manion, Reisman, Shore & Newman. "If you are in the wrong niche, things can go wrong."

What seems to bother many lawyers is the relentless pressure to generate business, to respond to client demands, to post billable hours.

Said litigator Grossman, "In a way, what has happened in law is not too different from what has happened in accounting or medicine. We have forgotten we are practitioners, and we bill by the hour. We are trying to live the same lifestyle as (many of) our clients. We are driving ourselves into a form of slavery."