Hey, I'll work for $466 an hour

The Posse List was kind enough to share today a story from eDiscovery Daily Blog, which has been following the case In re Citigroup Inc. Securities Litigation. The case is noteworthy from a contract attorney standpoint because of the rates the plaintiff's firm tried to charge for contract attorney work in arriving at a settlement figure. The firm tried to bill an average rate of $466 per hour for contract attorneys. You know, this job might not be so shitty if they paid me that much. Of course, they don't, and it looks like the plaintiff's firm won't get away with it.

Apparently, there is a class-action reform activist involved in the settlement hearings, which makes me happy because all class action settlements give the plaintiff's firm a shitload of money and the actual plaintiffs get fucked with no lube. There are some stupid incentives in our legal system. In any event, eDiscovery Daily Blog reported this:

One shareholder objected to the lead counsel’s billing practices, claiming the contract attorneys’ rates were exorbitant.Judge Stein carefully scrutinized the contract attorneys’ proposed hourly rates “not only because those rates are overstated, but also because the total proposed lodestar for contract attorneys dwarfs that of the firm associates, counsel, and partners: $28.6 million for contract attorneys compared to a combined $17 million for all other attorneys.” The proposed blended hourly rate was $402 for firm associates and $632 for firm partners. However, the firm asked for contract attorney hourly rates as high as $550 with a blended rate of $466. The plaintiff explained that these “contract attorneys performed the work of, and have the qualifications of, law firm associates and so should be billed at rates commensurate with the rates of associates of similar experience levels.” In response, the complaining shareholder suggested that a more appropriate rate for contract attorneys would be significantly lower: “no reasonable paying client would accept a rate above $100 per hour.” 

Holy shit. They tried to bill $466/hour for contract attorneys? Wow. Even in New York, temps don't make much more than in DC. It's a shitty job there, too. Apparently, the judge in this case recognized that:

Judge Stein rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the contract attorneys should be billed at rates comparable to firm attorneys, citing authority that “clients generally pay less for the work of contract attorneys than for that of firm associates”:

“There is little excuse in this day and age for delegating document review (particularly primary review or first pass review) to anyone other than extremely low-cost, low-overhead temporary employees (read, contract attorneys)—and there is absolutely no excuse for paying those temporary, low-overhead employees $40 or $50 an hour and then marking up their pay ten times for billing purposes.”

Jesus H., please pay me $40 or $50 per hour. I don't give a fuck how you mark it up. But yeah, yet another example of firm fuckheads trying to get rich on the backs of contract attorneys. Usually, they get away with it.