I know, nobody likes the word vomit. But I read this today on law.com (taken from the Wall Street Journal). Beyond the issue of the hourly rate, I just loved the fact that they used the comment “possible vomit point for clients.” It makes me giggle.
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. …
“We have viewed $1,000 an hour as a possible vomit point for clients,” says a partner at a New York firm. “Frankly, it’s a little hard to think about anyone who doesn’t save lives being worth this much money,” says David Boies, one of the nation’s best-known trial lawyers, at the Armonk, N.Y., office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. …
Clients are often most cost-conscious about junior attorneys, believing they provide less value-per-dollar than senior counsel. Considering a major-league baseball player can make the equivalent of $15,000 per hour, “$1,000 for very seasoned lawyers who can solve complex problems doesn’t seem to be inappropriate,” says Mike Dillon, the general counsel of Sun Microsystems Inc.
And the guy from Sun Microsystems just sounds like a jerk, doesn’t he? With average ticket sales of between 25,000 and 45,000 (depending on the teams) for each game, I’m guessing some of those ball players earn their keep. When Mr. Dillon personally draws 25,000 to 45,000 clients per week or so, maybe he can justify feeling like he might be worth thousands of dollars per hour. In the meantime, he sounds like the kind of guy you’d want to run screaming away from at a party…
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“Frankly, it’s a little hard to think about anyone who doesn’t save lives being worth this much money.”
I’d hire this guy just because of his attitude alone. Not just about the money, but also about people saving lives.
Course, being a freelancer married to a teacher, I still wouldn’t be able to afford him!
David Boies is way cool. We worked on a case together about eight years ago, and he remembered me when I he autographed his autobiographical book for me. When he and his wife made a major contribution (as reported in the Wall Street Journal), they made it to a local hospital near where they live (Armonk, NY) rather than a “name” institution.