What can I say? Ted Olsen, partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, known for his part in the Bush v. Gore fiasco in 2000, and for his part in the Perry – same sex marriage case in California – and Prop 8 – is billing $1,800 per hour for his part in a chapter 11 case. As Jacqueline Palank writes in the WSJ Bankruptcy Blog:
Bankruptcy attorneys, as we’ve noted, also belong to the exclusive but growing $1,000-or-more club, although their presence is somewhat more controversial given the distressed companies they’re representing. Bankruptcy tends to be where we encounter top-dollar fees—like Theodore Olson’s stunning $1,800 hourly rate in the LightSquared Chapter 11 case—because they’re subject to a federal judge’s approval and therefore are easily visible in publicly filed court papers.
According to the same article, there are now some 700 or so partners who bill $1,000 per hour or more in bankruptcy cases.
almost as much as my hourly rate.