To find out, let’s consider the following hypothetical scenario:
Company A has been damaged by a contract breach to the tune of $500,000. The executives of Company A go to an attorney, who decides to sue for $1,000,000 (“ask for more to get what you want”). Company B, on its attorney’s instructions, refuses to pay this inflated amount, and decides to fight. The battle is on!
Over a course of months and several different court hearings, evidence is gathered, many depositions are taken, interrogatories and replies to interrogatories are submitted, briefs and replies to briefs are written, and motions to counter counter-motions are filed.
Throughout this process, we find on both sides paralegals making “deposition digests” and “cite-checking” legal briefs at $65 an hour; associates doing research for legal memoranda at $150 an hour on the database Westlaw (which charges over $150 an hour for access), and distilling the research gathered; and law partners reviewing the written memoranda and conferencing with associates at $350 an hour. In addition, airline tickets, photocopying, cab fare, “temp” wages, and after-hour meal costs mount. And so it goes, until the day of reckoning.