Biglaw

Yes, This Is How Much A Biglaw Partner Working For One Week Bills

And the bills are only going to get bigger.

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The media is losing its collective sh*t over the completely reasonable bill that Bracewell partner and former federal judge Barbara Jones has submitted for her work as the special master reviewing the materials seized in the raid of Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen’s office. It’s like — yes, this is what quality legal work costs in 2018, get a clue.

You’ve almost inevitably seen some breathless headline in the last 24 hours or so discussing the invoice from Jones that revealed a $700/hour billing rate for the retired judge and a grand total of $47,390 in legal services for a single week of work on the matter.

But here’s the thing — that’s not an outrageous bill. That’s what Biglaw partners cost. In fact, for someone with the experience (including 16 years on the federal bench) and gravitas of Barbara Jones, it’s actually a pretty damn good deal. Top rates for experienced partners approach the $2,000 mark — more than double Jones’s rate — so let’s just chill out the f*ck out.

And the bills are only going to get bigger. The government has collected a metric sh*t-ton of documents, and deciding what materials are protected by the attorney-client privilege is going to take a lot of hours (at $700 per). Never mind that the highly public nature of the case means there’s just that extra bit of pressure to articulate a justification for every decision, a process that, again, takes a lot of time.

So when some douche at the bar tries to strike up conversation opining about the outrageously large legal bill in the Cohen case, just smile and turn away — because that guy has no idea what he’s talking about.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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