Law.com has published a list of "40 top lawyers under 40." Again. You can look at it on the website. And then ask yourself some questions regarding the profession's hostility to people who have lives, or more particularly to those who had lives before law school. These individuals tend to have 10-15 years of experience (I'll be eligible--barely--for "50 under 50" under that criterion). That's all well and good; but where is there any recognition that experience outside of law counts for a damned thing?
Law is far from unique in this; many of my other military-officer brethren, even those with directly applicable experience, have had similar problems (e.g., one individual I know who had an MBA and ran a base personnel office managing 5,500 "workers" and their families was put under a 29-year-old kid five years out of a mid-level MBA program because he had only completed his MBA the previous year). It's even worse in the legal academy. Quickly: Name a prominent law professor (not in tax or patent law) who began law school more than five years after finishing his/her BA (but that's really a gripe for another time).