Who Are The $3k/Hour Star Lawyers?

Ben Thomson, Legal contributing editor

Alex Spiro, the go-to litigator for Elon Musk and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, now bills clients $3,000 per hour—a figure cementing his status among Manhattan’s most expensive lawyers. Or in fact any US lawyers.

At Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Spiro and global co-managing partner William Burck lead a pricing tier that reflects the fast-growing climb of premium legal services across the US, with firm partners charging between $1,860 and $3,000 hourly.

The fee growth is something that continues unabated in the US and elsewhere.

The $3k/hour rate places Spiro at the forefront of a broader surge in legal costs in big law firms. While senior partners at major firms regularly exceed $2,500 hourly, Quinn Emanuel’s $3,000 benchmark signals a new threshold of billing—even as clients absorb “dramatic increases” in fees, per a Thomson Reuters/Georgetown Law report.

Spiro’s caseload underscores the demand for high-stakes expertise: he defends Musk in SEC litigation and shareholder disputes while navigating Adams’ ongoing bribery allegations. Burck, retained by the Trump Organization as an ethics advisor, adds political heavyweight representation to the firm’s portfolio.

Revenue growth at Quinn Emanuel aligns with industry trends. Wells Fargo reports rising profits driven by rate hikes, with associates now billing up to $1,665 hourly.

Though firms may negotiate discounts, Spiro’s $3,000 standard rate demonstrates the premium clients will pay for superstar lawyers.

There are others in the elite club, as David Lat mentions in his Original Jurisdiction newsletter, identifying Neal Manne (pictured) and Bill Carmody of Susman Godfrey as two litigators charging $50 a minute for their precious time.

The Quinn Emanuel rate has been matched by select partners at seven other Am Law 50 firms, including three Magic Circle firms expanding their U.S. presence, according to a Valeo Partners report.

Valeo’s 2025 analysis projects 17 additional law firms will breach the $2,900 threshold by Q3, with M&A partners in New York leading at 12 percent annual rate growth.

Valeo predicts 2026 rates of $3,500 for M&A partners vs. $1,900 for general litigation—an 84 percent gap.

London-based London’s Clifford Chance matches U.S. rates at £2,400/hour ($3,050), while Brazilian giant Mattos Filho hit R$12,000 ($2,300) in 2024, so the fee level rises are a universal trend, unsurprisingly.

Legal Fee Growth

One of the key reasons for the rate growth is that law mergers have driven premium litigation work into fewer hands (ie, fewer firms handling that work) and the pricing power has increased as a result, driving the major hourly rates increase.

Rates for personal injury lawyers grew by a relatively low 4 percent due to the competitive pressures applied via contingency fees.

The highest rate increases have been seen in bankruptcy and regulatory practices (at 15 – 18 percent) and also ESG litigation, according to reports.

According to Valeo and other sources the premium areas of practice include –

• Corporate M&A: $2,100–$3,000 (New York partners)
• Bankruptcy: $2,590–$2,720 (Wilson Sonsini, McDermott Will & Emery)
• IP Litigation: $2,450–$2,850 (California tech specialists)
• Environmental Law: $1,230–$1,750 (Dirk Vandermeersch, Cleary Gottlieb)

Interestingly, corporate law departments are capping the senior fee levels so that things don’t get completely out of hand. According to LegalBillReview 63 percent of corporate law departments at Fortune 500 firms cap the fee levels for outside lawyers.

But even fee resistance has limits. As a Pfizer GC noted: “When your $10B merger hinges on one partner’s antitrust opinion, you pay the $3,000.

David Lat is seeking more information about other top-chargers, so don’t hesitate to let us know here at LawFuel either.

Whatever the chargeout rates, super lawyers are always going to be charging super fees and that $3k/hour deal will one day – believe it or not – will seem like a bargain. But that’s a way off.

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