Attorney Fees
Cadwalader Drops Billing Rate to $525 an Hour for Partners’ TARP Advice
Posted Oct 9, 2009 8:44 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft worked for bargain billing rates advising the Treasury Department on its Troubled Assets Relief Program.
The “steeply discounted” rates ranged from $287 an hour for associates to $525 an hour for partners, the National Law Journal reports. The publication obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Cadwalader associates usually charge $310 to $575 an hour, while partners usually charge $625 to $1,050 per hour, the story says. In all, the TARP contract was worth more than $417,000.
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Comments
elklaw
Oct 9, 2009 10:05 AM CST
Since when did $525 become a bargain rate? If a big firm thinks this is a bargain rate, then maybe they are out of touch with the economic downturn? I realize that folks need to make money, but I tend to think a partner’s billing rates should be a flat rate fee based on the volume of work, or top out @$300/hour unless they can show they are worth more than that because their advice will relate in savings that justify that particular pay rate. I realize it takes a specialized skillset to consult on TARP but I also feel consultation of comparable quality could be done by law professors who run TARP dedicated law clinics, public interest law groups, non-profit sector law/research groups, retired career government -financial sector attorneys, and/or other professionals who do not charge as much.
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Joe
Oct 9, 2009 10:58 AM CST
Agree with Elklaw. In 10 years’ time, these same firms will be dying for companies to pay them what is their “bargain” rate, let alone their standard, inflated rates. Just like the housing bubble and the tech bubble, the bubble is bursting on excessive billable hour rates.
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AndytheLawyer
Oct 9, 2009 11:30 AM CST
$525 per hour for TARP advice? Heck, I can advise TARP recipient clients to “take the money and run” for just $400 per hour.
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capplebaum
Oct 9, 2009 4:25 PM CST
Agreed. Why couldn’t pro bono law professors handle this kind of thing? The taxpayers prop up law professor salaries through loan guarantees offered by the federal loan program. It’s the least they could do.
$525 is still an outrageous rate.
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B. McLeod
Oct 9, 2009 6:04 PM CST
Now I, as a taxpayer feel guilty. When I think of the small children of Cadwalader partners having to go to bed hungry, because of Treasury’s miserliness - well, it’s just heart-rending.
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Hunter Van Valkenburgh
Oct 9, 2009 11:02 PM CST
Do we get to see the product for which we paid so much? Given that there is an oversight panel working for civil service salaries that has exposed just how clueless or dishonest Treasury has been with TARP funds, just what sort of advice did these overpaid “smarties” give Treasury? How to throw sand in Congress eyes so Goldman Sachs could profit? Did the people who made the FOIA request also did up how much this firm contributed to Republican coffers when this whole mess was being “solved” in Sept. ‘08? The whole thing stinks, and I’d like to see the whole pack of thieves in prison trading cigarettes for their lives.
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