Thursday, August 30, 2007

If you bill it . . .

I’ve heard it said that “if you build it, they will come.” In this case, I think they meant, “If you bill it, they will come.” But the question is will they pay? I read Nathan Koppel’s Wall Street Journal article, Lawyers Gear Up Grand New Fees, in which Koppel details the new $1,000 per hour fees being charged by some large law firm litigators. I highly encourage all attorneys and legal marketers to read the article. My favorite analogies to high billing rates of attorneys are to that of the medical practitioner who saves lives and doesn’t make $1,000 per hour and to the baseball pro who makes $15,000 per hour. It’s the strange world of Mr. Mum. They say perception is nine-tenths of the truth, so if payers perceive such services to have a $1,000 per hour value, then they’re truth is that the attorney is worth just that. Let’s hope the counselors billing these rates will hit more home runs than Barry Bonds.

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