How Many Law Firms Does It Take to Sue an Egg Company? 34, Apparently
17th September 2012
The class-action gravy train may have hit something on the tracks.
It would be unseemly for law firms to collude on their billable rates in an antitrust case. Interestingly, however, the billable rates cluster around certain levels: $750-$950 for senior partners, $375-$450 for experienced associates, and $200-$300 for junior partners. While the legal industry might be as competitive and efficient as, say, the egg business, it’s difficult to see how this many firms, linked together with a web of referral agreements, can actually compete on price so their clients get the best deal possible. Especially since the clients aren’t actually bargaining for anything; the law firms themselves drive most consumer antitrust cases and only the judge — and lawyers’ own sense of ethics — stand in the way of full-on collusion with each other and the defendant to strike a settlement that is lucrative for the lawyers and nobody else.
September 17th, 2012 at 12:28
You rarely see one buzzard circling a wounded animal.