Temp Attorneys Paid $35-$40/Hour; Plaintiff Firms Seek $500 in Xerox Case

At least two graduates of big-name law schools earned $35 to $40 an hour to work on a contract basis in class action litigation against Xerox Corp.

But now the law firms that hired them are seeking to get reimbursed about $500 per hour for their services. Plaintiffs' counsel have asked a federal court in Connecticut to approve about $83 million in fees concerning such work by temporary attorneys, for which the lawyers themselves were paid about $11 million, reports Forbes.

As discussed in a 2005 GP/Solo article, federal courts have routinely applied a "lodestar" approach to increase actual attorney fees awarded to plaintiffs attorneys who have been particularly successful.

Hat tip: Wall Street Journal Law Blog.