Modulator

Attorney Gone Wild

I guess this goes in the category of if you don't ask for it you for sure won't get it:

...Gary -- who calls himself ''the Brioni man'' because he favors the Italian designer's suits -- is asking Circuit Court Judge Leroy Moe to approve at least $11,000 an hour, for a total of $24.3 million.
.....
Gary's proposed $11,000 hourly fee, for 2,211.5 hours of work, is 11 times more than any other lawyer on the case is seeking. Manuel Socias, Gary's co-lead counsel, billed 2,920 hours at a rate of $1,000 an hour. Paul Finizio, of Finizio & Finizio in Fort Lauderdale, billed 1,743 hours at $750 an hour.

Gary took the case after SPS agreed to pay him an undisclosed portion of any award, or a contingency fee. He says he deserves more because he was in effect financing a case that might bring him nothing.

Had he won, Gary would have gotten $3.3 billion at a standard contingency-fee rate. That's $1.5 million an hour.

Let's be glad that he did not win! Even $1,000 an hour seems pretty damned high to me.

As far as a return on his investment something equal to 10-20%/year should be quite equitable. Let's see, at a $1000/hour 20% would work out to around $400,000. Oh wait, he didn't even put in a full year's time.