On attorneys' fees

The increasing incidence of hourly rates in excess of $1,000 per hour has led some pundits to predict the end of hourly billing. See, e.g, Legal Marketing Blog, Is the Billable Hour Now Dead?

Meanwhile, I recently collected some cases about court-approved rates in the W.D. Va.:

"In recent years, this Court has approved hourly rates between $150 and $210. See Freeman v. Potter, 2006 WL 2631722 (W.D. Va.) ($200 rate in Title VII case); Loosemore v. Street, 2005 WL 2864749 (W.D. Va.) (hourly rates ranging from $95 to $185 were reasonable and in line with rates charged by counsel practicing in Big Stone Gap division in commercial case); Double K Properties, LLC v. Aaron Rents, Inc., 2003 WL 22697218 (W.D. Va.) ($210 rate in commercial case); Meade v. Barnhart, 218 F. Supp.2d 811, 813 (W.D. Va. 2002) ($150 rate in benefits case); Rike v. Harris, 2002 WL 1729517 (W.D. Va.) ($150 rate in Fair Housing Act case); Powell Valley Bankshares, Inc. v. Wynn, 2002 WL 728348, *3 (W.D. Va.) ($200 rate in commercial case); Hilt v. Hurd, 2001 WL 1517041, *2 (W.D. Va.) (statutory fees at $150 per hour out of court and $200 in court). Similarly, in Depaoli v. Vacation Sales Associates, L.L.C., 2007 WL 1675344, *6 (4th Cir.), the Fourth Circuit reduced to a hourly rate of $225 the fees in a successful Title VII case from the Eastern District of Virginia."