A few years ago during the economic boom in the U.S., some leading U.S. attorneys were charging $1,250 an hour. After the recession, the fees dropped. Recently, lawyers have begun to charge more than $1,000 again.
Across the legal industry, finance-related practices such as mergers & acquisitions, bankruptcy and tax charge the highest hourly rate.
Harvey Miller, a bankruptcy partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, said that his firm had a ceiling on partners' hourly fees. "$1,000 an hour is a lot of money," he said. However, when his firm saw that others were charging $1,000 + per hour, they also started asking $1,045 an hour.
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General counsel of DuPont Co said that it is difficult to pay more than $1,000 an hour, but for mergers-and-acquisitions advice he finds it acceptable for "a select few" attorneys.
Janine Dascenzo, associate general counsel of General Electric declares that her company is willing to pay premium dollar for "unique" expertise from a top lawyer.
One of the most expensive attorneys found by the Wall Street Journal was Kirk A Radke. Specializing in advising clients on leveraged buyouts and forming private-equity funds, Mr. Radke has an hourly rate of $1,250.
Most law partners bill 2,000 hours per year. Multiply that by $1,000 per hour and you reach $2 million dollars per year that an attorney is billing.
Such exorbitant pricing is especially shocking when you consider that junior attorneys or associates complete much of the legal work. Firms might bill their client $800 an hour and assign the work to associates who are being paid a lot less.
Outsourcing is an Answer
While lawyers are not charging $1,000 an hour for litigation discovery or for due diligence document review, corporate attorneys can drive their company's law firms to lower their legal costs by outsourcing.
Everyone recognizes that the U.S. recession has seriously dampened most companies' ability to pay top dollar for legal representation. In addition, there is heavy competition between law firms to be selected as the representative for the nation's top corporations. This situation empowers corporate counsel to demand their law firms to lower their legal costs and send certain legal tasks overseas.
Outsource to U.S. Attorneys Overseas
Israel offers a unique opportunity for law firms to hire U.S. attorneys at offshore prices. Israel possesses a large pool of English speaking, U.S. educated and U.S. licensed attorneys with decades of U.S. law firm experience.
For example, a corporation involved in a large litigation requires hundreds of hours of document review as part of the discovery process. Seasoned U.S. attorneys at significant savings can complete this electronic discovery in Israel.
In addition, a U.S. corporation attempting to purchase another usually requires hours of due diligence review of corporate documents. This may be outsourced to experienced U.S. lawyers who can offer quality legal review at offshore prices.
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