If you think $1,500 an hour for a lawyer sounds steep, that's now bargain-bin territory at the top of the market. Elite partners at major firms are pushing hourly rates past $3,000 and encountering little client resistance, the Wall Street Journal reports. One litigator whose clients include Hunter Biden and Elon Musk now charges $3,000 an hour and calls it a deal. "There is a small world of lawyers who can hop on the phone and solve a crisis," Christopher Clark says. A niche telecom-regulation specialist in California has jumped to $6,000 an hour for consulting, citing simple supply and demand. Eric Troutman charged $4,200 last year.
Data from legal billing platform Persuit show partner rates at the 50 biggest firms rose an average of 16% last year, far outpacing inflation, with senior partners charging up to $3,400 at some firms. "The question is always, are they worth it? You know, some of these guys are worth it," Kerry McLean, Intuit's general counsel, tells the Journal. "They understand the industry, they're connected, and have a lot of experience." The Financial Times reports that in the world of private equity, bidding wars for "superstar" corporate attorneys have led to recruitment offers of more than $25 million a year.
Companies are, however, starting to do some routine legal work like completing regulatory filing in-house, with the help of AI tools, the Journal reports. Persuit says that even junior associate lawyers who perform that kind of work make up to $1,400 an hour. Persuit CEO Jim Delkousis says that with AI tools becoming more sophisticated, "traditional rate hikes don't just look expensive, they look illogical."
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