The day of the $1,500-an-hour lawyer has arrived as partners at some of the nation’s top law firms are approaching — and, in a few cases, surpassing — that watershed billing rate, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Despite low inflation and weak demand for legal services, rates at large corporate law firms have risen by 3 to 4 percent a year since the economic downturn, according to Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group. The rate creep has boosted law firms’ revenue at a time when many of them are under pressure from lower-cost legal-service providers and corporate clients that are keeping more legal work in-house. Revenue at law firms rose 4 percent last year, according to Wells Fargo Private Bank’s Legal Specialty Group, though demand rose just 0.5 percent.
