Not the “Mile High” Club, But the $1,000-Plus An Hour Club Nevertheless.
Vanessa O’Connell reports, in a February 23, 2011 article in The Wall Street Journal, that leading U.S. attorneys in some big firms or specialty areas are charging as much as $1,250 an hour, even though some pioneering attorneys had charged more than $1,000 an hour about five years ago. Also of interest, hourly rates for partners in law firms rose by an average 3% in 2009 and 2010 and 2.3% this year, compared to much higher increases of 8% in 2008, according to Hildebrandt Baker Robbins. The average law firm partner now asks $635 an hour and bills $575. Nearly 2.9% of partners at a group of 24 large U.S. and British law firms asked for $1,000 an hour or more in U.S. cases last year, up from 1.5% in 2009. London-based lawyers tend to charge higher per-hour rates than their U.S. counterparts, but London attorneys don’t bill as many hours on a case.
Vioxx Attorney’s Fees Fund Generates Some Fierce Objections from Some Plaintiffs’ Counsel.
David Bario, in a February 24, 2011 article in The American Lawyer, explains the details behind fierce objections from some plaintiffs’ counsel in the Vioxx product liability case, which settled for $4.85 billion with 6.5% of the fund–$315.3 million–being set aside for attorney’s fees to be shared for plaintiffs’ counsel in the case. Nine firms were appointed to allocate the fees among the 109 plaintiffs law firms (yep, 109), which based on numbers alone is likely to generate controversy. That it has. 17 firms have filed “fierce”
objections (Mr. Bario’s characterization), with the objectors claiming that the steering fee committee has “stacked the deck” in favor of awarding fees to the committee members–70% of the total pool. For example, plaintiffs attorneys with single clients were asked to pay 8% of their clients’ settlements into a common fund, but the steering committee members agreed to reduce the “pay-in” to 4%. A special master has been appointed to consider the objections to the fee committee recommendations, so this imbroglio likely will be reported on in the future by us.
Stanley Chesley Under Fire, But Fighting Disbarment Recommendation.
Dionne Searcey, in a February 24, 2011 article in The Wall Street Journal, talks about Stanley Chesley, a Kentucky attorney who gained fame for his multi-tort innovative tactics in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Kentucky. Trial Commissioner William L. Graham recent recommended that Mr. Chesley be stripped of his Kentucky law license based on about $20 million in fees that he garnered in the fen-phen litigation. The basic allegations were that he strong-armed other plaintiffs attorneys into sharing fees with him in return for his class action expertise, even though 400 plaintiffs were not initially notified of the sharing arrangements to share in 21% of the fees in the settlement. Later, apparently, the cut was increased to 49%, an arrangement not disclosed to clients. The allegations go on to say that Mr. Chesley earned $7.5 million more than the fees called for under his arrangement, according to Ms. Searcey’s article. Mr. Chesley is planning to appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which will make a final determination on the commissioner’s recommendations.