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Billables Rate, Archer & Greiner, Shearman: Business of Law

18.05.12

Average hourly rates for firms with 501 to 1,000 attorneys increased 13 percent compared with a 4 percent rise at firms with 1 to 50 lawyers. For partners who billed $800 or more an hour, the rate grew almost three times faster in the three years ending in 2011 than rates for partners who billed less than $300 an hour. The rates for the highest billing associates, those at $500 or more an hour, grew almost five times as fast as those billing less than $200 an hour.

The report was based on $7.6 billion in law firm billings from 2007 through 2011 by more than 4,000 firms, including about 80,000 partners and associates.

Craig Raeburn, managing director of TyMetrix Legal Analytics, said in a statement that the report was meant to help law firms and clients “fill a growing information gap so they can continue to make fact-based decisions regarding how to staff, budget and the control the costs of legal matters.

Source: BusinessWeek

Spain's 15M Movement Responds to Wave of Repression

18.05.12

The 15M movement in Spain has faced repression from the very beginning: 24 young people were arrested and beaten by police in the  demonstrations organized by Democracia Real Ya on May 15 last year , which is a large part of why several dozen people decided to camp that night in Sol square, turning the demonstration into an encampment. That first night, the Legal Committee of Sol was created by lawyers and laypeople; similar groups emerged in other camps around the country in order to give legal support to the movement. This has never been an easy job, but it has only been getting harder.

Since May 15, the Legal Committee of Sol has given support to more than a hundred arrestees. There have been another hundred arrested in Barcelona and many more in the rest of the country. Activists have been charged with undermining authority (facing one to three years in jail), disobedience and resistance (six months to one year), and disorderly conduct (six months to three years). Most of all, though, 15M protesters are being punished though economic means. There are nearly 70 people with fines in Madrid, according to the Legal Committee of Sol, and in Barcelona, there have been more than 200 people fined, together amounting to more than €40,000.

Source: In These Times