A recent Reuters story by David Thomas, “Top Bankruptcy Firm Kirkland Boost Billing Rates, Nearing $2,500 an Hour”, reports that one of the world's busiest bankruptcy practices is raising its top hourly billing rates to $2,465, as law firms press for higher and higher fees in major corporate restructurings. U.S. law firm Kirkland & Ellis disclosed the new maximum rate in a series of court filings in bankruptcy cases involving its clients Rite Aid, We Work and Yellow Corp.
Hourly lawyer rates reaching $2,000 were nearly unheard of just a decade ago, but more recently they have been steadily creeping above that mark for some attorneys. U.S. litigator David Boies’ hourly billing rates this year in a class action lawsuit against Deutsche Bank was $2,110. Covington & Burling said last year in a filing that senior partners’ top rate at that firm was $2,500 an hour.
The $2,465 top rate for Kirkland, which lists 329 restructuring lawyers on its website, matches what prominent Hogan Lovells appellate lawyer Neal Katyal charged for his time last year in a high-stakes bankruptcy case involving a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. Bankruptcy work can be a major source of revenue for large law firms, as corporate restructurings often require armies of lawyers and sometimes drag on for many years.
Under the new ranges unveiled by Kirkland, bankruptcy partners will charge between $1,195 to $2,465 an hour; of counsel bill $820 to $2,245 an hour; and associates bill $745 to $1,495 an hour. The rates will be in effect by Jan. 1, court filings said. The filings said Kirkland's billing rates are "subject to periodic adjustments to reflect economic and other conditions," as well as lawyer promotions. Its top hourly rate was previously $2,245, according to a Nov. 20 filing in the We Work Case.
Chicago-founded Kirkland is the highest-grossing law firm in the United States, according to data collected by The American Lawyer, with revenues of $6.5 billion in 2022 and more than 3,400 lawyers.
Kirkland has represented more than 120, or 10%, of the large public companies that filed for bankruptcy since Oct. 1, 1979, according to a research database co-created by University of California, Los Angeles law professor Lynn LoPucki. Nearly half of those cases were filed between 2013 and Dec. 31, 2022, according to the database.