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Big Law Lawyers Charging $1000 per Hour and Up but Attorney Prices Have to be Balanced Against Costs of Living, the Price of Real Estate and Rents, and Legal Results

By Andis Kaulins

See More Top Lawyers Break Through $1,000 Hourly Billing Barrier by Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABA Journal.

Most lawyers charge much less than that of course so that hourly billing rates may range widely from as low as $50 to over $1000 per hour. Partners charge more per hour, of course, while the work of associates for clients is charged at a substantially lower rate.

Hourly billing at the "big law" large law firms in major metropolitan areas is admittedly high, but those high rates are also balanced by expenses that are equally inflated due to the higher cost of living in big cities and other financial factors such as the exorbitant prices of real estate and office rental in city centers.

I once calculated for my own amusement in the days that I was a law firm associate in New York City, that I could have been living equally well -- if not better -- in most places in the country on one-fourth the salary that I was earning as an associate in the Big Apple, so that a fair comparison of actual hourly billing rates would have to be calibrated around the country in terms of actual costs of doing law practice, and related factors.

Moreover, attorney billing rates are a product of a capitalist system governed by the market of supply and demand. No one is forcing clients to pay those hourly rates. Nevertheless, many clients know that the results are often worth it. You are paying for high level expertise, and, in the last analysis, for positive results, which of course are not guaranteed, but which are more likely to be in your favor if you have top lawyers working for you on your legal matters.

Full post as published by LawPundit on February 23, 2011 (boomark / email).