Here’s a survey article that reports on the high-end billing rates for lawyers across the country. The survey used billing rates in bankruptcy cases, since bankruptcy courts often require attorneys to report their fees in publicly available documents.
Many people have argued, quite sensibly, that hourly billing is chiefly responsible for the dysfunction of our civil (as opposed to criminal) legal system. Clearly, it tends to diminish efficiency in the dispute resolution process; that’s a virtually self-evident economic fact. The only counter-weight to the inefficiency of hourly billing would be the personal ethics of individual lawyers, which as we know is variable. And certainly not reported in any publicly available documents.
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Only bankruptcy cases are included. My daughter recently joined a Dallas law firm and they billed her at $ 225 for a few months and then raised her billing rate to $ 275.She does not normally handle bankruptcy cases.
for what it’s worth, the link you have up now is the 2006 going rate.
the 2007 numbers can be found here: https://www.dailyreportonline.com/Editorial/SpecialSections/GoingRate07.asp
all the best,steve