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Comment by jacques_chester | Hacker News Reader

Criminal trial lawyers? No.

A really good corporate lawyer? Yep. 20-30k per day for the best of the best; plus various thousands of dollars for their assistants.

(Now you know why Gigaco Inc vs Humunco Inc cases can blow out to millions or even tens of millions of dollars).

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Have you ever hired, worked with, met, talked to or at least seen the bill from a top corporate attorney? They're expensive for sure, but not that expensive. Much of the cost of those cases comes from the army of junior associates reading through thousands of pages of evidence, etc.

I'm thinking of actual court appearance fees, but I'm ready to be utterly wrong (I don't retain many QCs).

Didn't mean to be flippant as I'm not an expert either, but through the course of my career I've spoken to a ton of attorneys including a few who routinely represent companies all of us know well. The top corporate litigators I've met charge in the $1000/hr range, but not much more than that. Their rates tend to be somewhat negotiable as well depending on the task.

I know of lawyers who charge $20,000 for a 15 minute court appearance. They represent billionaires.

They aren't charging $20,000 for 15 minutes of work. That number includes 20-40 hours of trial prep, with maybe some other expenses thrown in.

You're right: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870407130457616...

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