It’s well known that Biglaw partners at the top of their game command high hourly rates. But how high is too high? According to a U.S. bankruptcy trustee, the answer is $2,465.
That’s the going rate for Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal, and the U.S. is objecting to Johnson & Johnson subsidiary LTL Management’s request to add Katyal to its legal team in a high-stakes bankruptcy proceeding. Reuters has the details:
The U.S. trustee in the Chapter 11 case on Friday asked a federal bankruptcy judge in New Jersey to block LTL from retaining Katyal, calling his hourly rate “significantly higher” than that of partners from the seven other law firms already involved in the case. …
Katyal’s hourly rate would rank among the highest publicly available figures in the legal industry. …
According to the trustee’s objection, the hourly rate among LTL’s lawyers from Jones Day topped out at $1,350. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom charged as high as $1,195; Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ top rate was $1,579; and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe’s was $1750. Lawyers from King & Spalding and Shook, Hardy & Bacon are also representing LTL.
Here, we see the difference between “regular” Biglaw partners and Biglaw partners like Katyal, who is no ordinary lawyer. Katyal is a former acting U.S. solicitor general who’s argued many, many times before the Supreme Court.
Is this where hourly rates are headed for the most talented of attorneys? If you want brains like this on your legal team, it’s going to cost you a pretty penny.
Lawyer’s $2,465 hourly rate draws objection in J&J talc bankruptcy case [Reuters]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.