Lawyers Gear Up Grand New Fees, Hourly Rates Increasingly Hit $1,000 (Once Seen as Taboo)

WSJ ^ | Wednesday, August 22, 2007 | NATHAN KOPPEL

[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.

[CheyennePress]

Well, lawyers do contribute towards out system, though in an indirect way. They do enforce product safety control. They do assure that basic standards are met in industry.

That said, I don’t think there is any doubt that our legal system has become over-litigated.

I’m not sure how many are aware of the fact, but American corporations now spend more money defending themselves in lawsuits than they spend in research and development.

I ask how we’re going to continue to remain seated on the throne of innovation with thousands upon thousands of ankle biters and ambulance chasers (i.e. lawyers) whipping the get-rick-for-nothing crowd into seeing themselves as victicms and corporations as endless pockets there to pay their way through life...

I personally think it’s time for tort reform in this country. And I won’t support a candidate who doesn’t back it. It’s one of the reasons I like Romney so much, for instance.

That said, I can see lawyers charging $1,000 per hour. If they are amazingly good and the market will sustain it. That said, there are a lot of unscrupulous billing practices. I believe Skadden recently got in trouble for having lawyers billing for “thinking about their clients’ cases while they were in the shower.”

That sort of nonsense is simply not excuseable. But law firms also reward lawyers who find creative ways of billing their clients—ethics be d@#ned.

[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.

Yes, there is too many lawyers, but sadly they all are busy in our litigation oriented society. Thanks to them (lawyers) medical and other insurance went through the roof, and doctors have to charge $200 + for visit to pay $300000 + insurance premium. I will never buy that those poor lawyers work for min wage, what a joke and insult to people who really have to struggle working for minimum wage.