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Plus: Tesla pays plaintiffs' lawyers $176 million in Musk

case

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More Trump nominees disclose law firm pay

(Updates headline, adds new details in paragraphs 2 and 3)

By David Thomas and Mike Scarcella

Feb 27 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly

report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to

[email protected])

Some top partners at U.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart &

Sullivan are now charging a standard fee of $3,000 an hour,

Reuters reported this week, signaling a new high for the

industry.

Lawyers at at least one other firm have hit the same

milestone: Litigator Neal Manne said on Thursday that he and his

partner Bill Carmody at Susman Godfrey also adopted $3,000

hourly rates this year, though he said they often agree on

case-specific fees instead of charging by the hour.

Manne's clients include Chevron and Live Nation, and

Carmody has represented ride-sharing giant Uber.

With law firm billing rates swiftly rising at big firms

around the country and nearly doubling in the past decade,

lawyers at other large firms are not far behind.

A review of court filings in bankruptcies and other cases

shows that several firms are now charging top hourly rates above

$2,500.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati said last year that some of

its partners would begin billing client Rite Aid up to $2,720 an

hour for bankruptcy work.

Some partners at Kirkland & Ellis, ranked the

highest-grossing U.S. law firm by The American Lawyer, said in

December they would bill at $2,675 an hour this year, up from

$2,445 in 2024.

Second-ranked Latham & Watkins said in December that its

partners were charging up to $2,745 an hour in the Chapter 11

bankruptcy of online used car seller Vroom.

Sidley Austin said in a January 29 application to represent

Prospect Medical Group in the hospital group's bankruptcy that

its partners would charge $2,610 an hour this year.

Law firms do not typically publicize their rates, but they

are sometimes required to disclose them in bankruptcies and

class actions or may reveal them in public contracts with

governmental clients.

Reuters reached out to more than 35 of the largest U.S.

firms to ask about their rates, and whether any of their lawyers

charge $3,000 or more. The firms either declined to comment or

did not immediately respond to a request for one.

At Quinn Emanuel, the $3,000 dollar rate applies to a

handful of partners such as Alex Spiro, whose clients have

included billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk and rapper Jay-Z. Even

associates at the firm now bill as much as $1,665 an hour,

according to court filings.

U.S. law firms often raise their billing rates each year,

and average hourly partner rates reached $1,114 last year,

according to a survey of large firms by legal recruiter and

consultancy Major, Lindsey & Africa. That's up 36% from the

company's last survey in 2022, and up 83% from 2014.

A survey of more than 130 U.S. law firms by Wells Fargo's

legal business division found that billing rates rose by 9.1% on

average in 2024, with the 50 highest-grossing U.S. law firms

raising them by 10% on average.

As billing rates rise, so do law firm revenue, profits and

lawyer pay. The same survey by Wells Fargo's Legal Specialty

Group found that law firm revenue rose by 12.5% on average last

year. Equity partner profits increased by 16.9% on average,

Wells Fargo found.

Major Lindsey in its 2024 report said rate increases were a

key factor in "the highest-ever average total compensation

figure and the highest percentage increase in the survey's

history."

-- Tesla said in a court filing on Tuesday that it has

paid $176.1 million in attorney fees awarded to plaintiffs'

lawyers who negotiated a $919 million settlement with the

electric carmaker over allegations that Tesla's board members

overpaid themselves, despite earlier disputing the fee. Tesla's

chief accounting officer Vaibhav Taneja said the company paid

the fee on February 11.

Tesla is still appealing Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick's

January decision awarding the fees, court records show. The fee

award was the fourth-largest in the history of shareholder

litigation in Delaware.

A Tesla spokesperson did not immediately respond to a

request for comment, nor did the plaintiffs' lawyers at Fields

Kupka & Shukurov, McCarter & English and Bleichmar Fonti & Auld.

The carmaker has argued the fee should be capped at $64

million, while the plaintiffs' lawyers sought $230 million.

-- Financial disclosures by officials tapped to join the Trump

administration show that Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's David

Fotouhi, Trump's pick to serve as the second-in-charge at the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reported earning at least

$3.2 million in fees representing clients including Chevron,

Ford and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Trump's choice for deputy secretary of state, Christopher

Landau, is collecting $378,341 a year in annual retirement

benefits from his former law firm Kirkland & Ellis, according to

his financial disclosure.

Landau resigned from Kirkland in 2018, after more than 25

years at the firm. He then was employed at Quinn Emanuel and

more recently at law firm Ellis George.

In another new financial disclosure, Trump's pick to

lead the Justice Department's civil rights division, Harmeet

Dhillon, listed her legal services to clients, including Musk's

X Corp, conservative media star Tucker Carlson and the

Republican National Committee.

Dhillon said she would sell her stake in her firm Dhillon

Law Group to her brother, a partner at the small firm.

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