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Lawyers Gear Up Grand New Fees, Hourly Rates Increasingly Hit $1,000 (Once Seen as Taboo)
WSJ ^ | Wednesday, August 22, 2007 | NATHAN KOPPEL

Posted on 08/22/2007 7:02:09 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay

The hourly rates of the country's top lawyers are increasingly coming with something new -- a comma.

A few attorneys crossed into $1,000-per-hour billing before this year, but recent moves to the four-figure mark in New York, which sets trends for legal markets around the country, are seen as a significant turning point.

On Sept. 1, New York's Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP will raise its top rate to more than $1,000 from $950.

A select group of attorneys began billing at that rate before this year, such as Stephen Susman, a founding partner of a Houston firm who has tried big-ticket cases around the country, and Benjamin Civiletti, a former U.S. Attorney General under President Carter and a senior partner at Washington, D.C-based Venable LLP. And in London, top attorneys bill at rates that, when converted, can hit almost $1,500 an hour.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benjaminciviletti; lawyers; legal; market; stephensusman; tortreformnow
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To: fight_truth_decay

I believe the supreme court of whatever state the shark is licensed to practice in, has to give the nod to rate hike requests, or the offender risks getting disbarred. This would make law practice much more regulated than the practice of medicine — outside of arm twisting deals with insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid, doctors literally can charge what the market will bear.


21 posted on 08/23/2007 4:32:35 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: rogator
"We have the best justice system in this country that money can buy."

Michael Vick would like to know how much that would cost in dog years?

22 posted on 08/23/2007 4:33:10 AM PDT by battlegearboat (Driving Miss Danny Glover)
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To: Anticommie; All

Some lawyers earn minimum wage. Check want ads in big cities and you’ll see it.

Basing fees on hours performed is anachronistic. Lawyers are in business. They project a reasonable income for themselves and staff. They pay high overhead, usually in plush executive office suites. Equipment rental and maintenance. Phones, supplies, postage. They add it all up and then set an “hourly fee” for various levels of attorneys and paralegals to set rates on.

Doctor don’t use the hourly fee model. You’ve heard the guy say I had my hip replaced for $20,000 and it only took them 2 hours. Obviously there is no time component. It is based on service performed and practitioner’s expertise level.


23 posted on 08/23/2007 4:34:18 AM PDT by shalom aleichem
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To: SC DOC

Where does the utilization rate stand, however. A lawyer who makes a $1000 consultation once or twice a week isn’t doing all that well in the absolute.


24 posted on 08/23/2007 4:34:35 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: shalom aleichem
Basing fees on hours performed is anachronistic.

I can see one reason for this, which would be to discourage clients offered a "package deal" from endlessly sapping the attorney's time on little things tangentially related to the main issue. That generally doesn't happen with doctors, since they can charge per visit.

25 posted on 08/23/2007 4:37:39 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: shalom aleichem
Lawyer's buy very expensive leather couchs.

My dad called them fee couchs.

The lawyer makes sure you are comfortably seated in one before he tells you his fee.

26 posted on 08/23/2007 4:47:10 AM PDT by battlegearboat (Driving Miss Danny Glover)
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To: Anticommie

US has the highest number of lawyers per capita, one lawyer in 60 people.


That is a total myth.

The US is in the middle of the pack worldwide on professional legal service providers per capita.

Let me know where you get your data.


27 posted on 08/23/2007 6:18:44 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed ("We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them, I won't chip away at them" -Mitt Romney)
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To: SC DOC

Your chart distorts the truth.

In the US, all legal service providers are called “lawyers.”

In Japan, there are a minuscule few “lawyers,” but there are multitudes of corporate employees who do the lawyering for their company, exactly the same kind of work done in the US, mostly in law firms.

This has long been true.


28 posted on 08/23/2007 6:26:07 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed ("We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them, I won't chip away at them" -Mitt Romney)
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To: battlegearboat

NAH, all that wood and leather and hyper-expensive auto’s is to make the client THINK the lawyer is rich so he just HAS to be GREAT.

Little known factoid.


29 posted on 08/23/2007 6:34:50 AM PDT by marty60
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To: shalom aleichem
Some lawyers earn minimum wage.

Really? Poor lawyers, do they also collect food stamps and other gov benefits? We are told one can not live on min wage.

30 posted on 08/23/2007 6:47:21 AM PDT by Anticommie
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To: marty60
No, it's so the client doesn't fall over in a dead faint and injure himself when told the lawyer's fee.

Trust me, I know.

31 posted on 08/23/2007 7:16:20 AM PDT by battlegearboat (Driving Miss Danny Glover)
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To: battlegearboat

HEHE Trueer words have never been spoken. HUMMMMM I smell a lawsuit in there somewhere. Kidding.


32 posted on 08/23/2007 7:20:56 AM PDT by marty60
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To: All
We need tort reform.

The biggest obstacle to real tort reform is that the trial lawyers, a wealthy special interest group, has the Democratic Party in their pocket (and some Republicans).

"You can have affordable health care and a good environment for jobs. Or you can have rich trial lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits. Not both." ~~ Newt Gingrich

"Last year, U.S. corporations spent more money on tort claims than they did on R&D. If innovation is the key to our long term leadership, then some tort lawyers are cashing out our country's future....tort lawyers are ok with state reform, but not national reform. You know what state level tort reform means - it means that as long as there is one lawsuit-friendly state, they can sue almost any major, deep-pocketed company in America. No thanks, America needs national tort reform." ~~ Mitt Romney http://www.freerepublic.com/~unmarkedpackage/#spending

"The current system of litigation is too expensive for America, fails to provide justice for Americans and is being made steadily worse and more expensive by increasingly predatory trial lawyers who have more and more resources devoted to gaming the system to enrich themselves at the expense of individual Americans and American society. This is especially true in the healthcare system. Doctors are more important to our nation's health care system than trial lawyers. In order to ensure the availability of doctors it is important to create and/or maintain hard caps on non-economic damages in medical liability cases." ~~Newt Gingrich http://www.senatorfredsmith.com/content/Pages/show/id/12

33 posted on 08/23/2007 7:27:43 AM PDT by redgirlinabluestate (------------>MittReport.com)
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To: redgirlinabluestate

King Henry VI, Part II, (Act IV), Scene 2


34 posted on 08/23/2007 8:29:22 AM PDT by SC DOC
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To: SC DOC

Would that be considered “hate speech”? LOL.


35 posted on 08/23/2007 8:41:42 AM PDT by redgirlinabluestate
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To: loreldan
Why? Lawyers aren’t that scarce.

No, but those worth $1000-1500 an hour can be. Depends what the problem is.

36 posted on 08/23/2007 8:43:55 AM PDT by RightWhale (It's Brecht's donkey, not mine)
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To: SC DOC

Ok. So that’s a lot different than 1 in 60!


37 posted on 08/23/2007 8:54:24 AM PDT by College Repub
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To: Anticommie

There is a glut of lawyers. Law schools take all they can for the cash. Medical schools keep seats scarce, probably due to AMA wanting it that way. ABA does not seem to interfere with over-acceptance of applicants.


38 posted on 08/23/2007 10:31:39 AM PDT by shalom aleichem
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To: battlegearboat

I think you’re mixing “metaphors”...the deep leather couch story is for every inch you sink into the leather, your fee goes up another magnitude. The “fee couch” system involves mythical divorce lawyers collecting their fee in-kind rather than in-cash (but that is only a nasty rumor)


39 posted on 08/23/2007 10:36:03 AM PDT by shalom aleichem
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To: Lord Basil

Remember, there is actually a right to have a lawyer in the Constituion. Force the lawyers to take lower pay like we do to the doctors.


40 posted on 08/23/2007 1:50:49 PM PDT by art_rocks
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