Are u talking about criminal defence lawyer specifically?

Not much. Criminal lawyers usually practice in small Chinatown firms, which pay their associates $5K to $10K maybe (depending on seniority). If salaried partner (a rank, only in name), maybe $10K to $12K max.

After many years of experience, if he becomes an seasoned criminal lawyer, he can open his own shop or become equity partner in his current small firm. I'd say he can take home average $15K per month (after minusing overheads) doing normal volume-work petty criminal defence cases (traffic, theft, cheating, outrage of modesty, affray - mostly plead guilty or occasional trials) plus the occasional bigger or more complex cases (cheating, corruption, drug etc).

Some criminal lawyers practice in the big firms though, like R&T and Drew. These teams mainly focus on white-collar and financial crimes. If he's in these teams, then he'll be paid normal big firm associate salary scale.