Justices Who Make About $200K Debate Enhanced Fee of $700K
Are good lawyers entitled to more money for exceptional results?
Former Solicitor General Paul Clement answered in the affirmative in U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments yesterday. He argued that lawyers for Children’s Rights Inc. and the Atlanta law firm Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore deserve the $4.5 million in extra fees awarded by a federal judge for exceptional lawyering that reformed Georgia’s foster care system.
Clement moved to King & Spalding last year, where he is reportedly being paid $5 million a year. He told the National Law Journal his pay in the case is “just what you would expect given our position: a special fee arrangement with a potential enhancement for exceptional results.”
Slate covered Clement’s arguments, and said he is “Exhibit A” for his own proposition: Sometimes high-quality lawyers really can make a difference.
But the justices did not appear convinced, according to the NLJ. “The nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are all lawyers, but most showed little empathy for their fellow attorneys on Wednesday as they debated whether legal fee awards can be enhanced for superior performance or exceptional results under a federal fee-shifting statute,” the NLJ story said.
The $4.5 million fee enhancement is in addition to $6 million already awarded. Justice Stephen G. Breyer “did a quick finger-in-the-air calculation,” according to the Washington Post, and said the award amounts to $350 an hour, or $700,000 a year for a lawyer working 2,000 hours, the Associated Press reports. ”You say to a taxpayer, ‘You are going to pay this’ and that’s more money than 99 percent of the taxpayers hope to see in their lives,” Breyer said. ”Wow.”
“Very high is enough,” when it comes to lawyer fees, Breyer said. “You don’t need very, very, very, high.”
The justices make $213,900 a year, according to the NLJ. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. makes $223,500, although his pay in private practice was more that $1 million a year, according to the Post.
“Maybe we have a different perspective,” Roberts told Clement. “You think the lawyers are responsible for a good result, and I think the judges are.”
The case is Perdue v. Kenny A.
