The Right Coast

Rock-Star Law Firms Are Billing Up to $2,500 per Hour. Clients Are Indignant. - WSJ

Big companies around the world are pushing back against rapidly rising legal bills, railing against hourly lawyer rates they say are the product of law-firm excess.

Lawyers’ hourly rates rose almost 9% in the first half of 2024, according to data from Wells Fargo legal specialty group, which surveys large law firms quarterly. That’s on top of an 8.3% increase in rates last year. Historically, fees would rise about 4% each year, Wells Fargo says. 

Lawyers’ pay is skyrocketing. Brutal poaching wars for talent are now common, and top lawyers expect to be paid like investment bankers and private-equity principals. 

“You don’t negotiate with those guys. You aren’t going to bet the company,” said Matthew Lepore, general counsel for chemical giant BASF. “Clients aren’t doing as well as the law firms are doing, and it’s not sustainable.” 

In certain specialties, such as merger counseling, regulatory compliance, tax and private equity, corporate general counsels say there is only a small pool of firms to choose from. Companies venturing into high-stakes deals turn to the most elite firms, with the hopes that the high price tag promises the best outcomes. Hourly rates can run $2,500 or more for the most sought-after attorneys, and are expected to keep rising, according to legal recruiters and court filings. 

“The market is driven by the top end. The top firms are spending money to compete for the best rock-star talent. That’s what is driving this,” said Alan Tse, chief legal officer at global commercial real-estate firm JLL. “Obviously not enough of us are saying no. Clients are part of the problem.”

via www.wsj.com

How the Massacre of Ignored Female Soldiers Came to Symbolize Oct. 7 Failures - WSJ

NAHAL OZ BASE, Israel—It was about 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 when dozens of heavily armed men burst into view on Maya Desiatnik’s video screen. The Israeli soldier, charged with monitoring a stretch of the Gaza frontier, picked up the radio at her side and raised the alarm.

“There is a Turkish knight!” she said, using the Israeli military code word for an incursion into Israeli territory. Palestinian militants were breaching the border. 

For months, Desiatnik, now 20 years old, and her colleagues in the observer unit, all of them young women, had warned their superiors repeatedly—and with increasing vehemence—that the Islamist militant group Hamas seemed to be preparing a major attack. Their concerns were dismissed.

Now, they were watching as their fears became reality, playing out on video screens in the observers’ situation room. The women issued urgent warnings to troops in the field. When more than 150 militants swarmed their base, about half a mile from Gaza, they started frantically calling for help.

None came. In the end, around 50 soldiers at the Nahal Oz base, including 15 observers, were shot or burned to death by militants. Seven observers were kidnapped and taken as hostages to Gaza.  

via www.wsj.com

East County man who won $10M on scratcher at Santee 7-Eleven ‘still working’ – NBC 7 San Diego

Because Bullock didn't want to miss any of the show he was watching, he flipped his ticket over, where each ticket has a barcode. It turns out the California Lottery has an app and ticket holders can scan the barcode instead of scratching the number off, and the app tells you if you're a winner.

When Bullock scanned his Royal Riches ticket, the app matter-of-factly told him he won $10 million — no sirens, no confetti — and instructed him, in the same way it would if he had, say, a a two-dollar winner, to fill out a claim form and sign the back of the ticket.

To be sure of his windfall, Bullock then scratched off the front of ticket for confirmation, he told NBC 7. Just how excited was he?

"Oh, man, I kind of just … it was more of a shock," Bullock said. "It probably took 7 or 8 hours that day to come down from the excitement of it."

It can take a while to get your money if you have a winning ticket. California Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Becker told NBC 7 on Friday that winners have to submit claim forms, and big winners are actually interviewed by law-enforcement officers to vet the "claimants," who only get called "winners" after they make it through that process, which can be as fast as four weeks or take months. Plus, "claimants" don't have to come forward immediately, she said; in fact, they even have a certain amount of time after the run of the lottery scratch-tickets "game" ends.

Bullock has company: So far, including him, three other $10 million winners have been identified from the Royal Riches game, Becker said, and there are still three other golden tickets out there.

Eventually, Bullock decided to take the one-time payout of $5.8 million. All those zeros in the bank weren't enough for him, however.

"I'm still working," Bullock said, "been doing that for almost seven years now," adding later, "you know, someone who's never had that much money, I don't know how far it will go, so I'm still working for now."

via www.nbcsandiego.com

Maybe he could switch to part-time. He'd have more time to watch TV that way.

Cardinal Ambongo sets out roadmap for polygamy text

Ambongo, the Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, noted that polygamy appeared in two forms: “polygyny, the marriage of a man with several wives, and polyandry, the marriage of a woman with several husbands.”

He said the practice also varied in scale, from two to three wives, to more than 10 wives, in the case of traditional chiefs. 

“On the other hand, in modern Africa, we are witnessing the emergence of new forms of polygamy through new forms of cohabitation involving children recognized as legitimate,” he noted.

The cardinal underlined that the Catholic Church in Africa upheld monogamy. “However, affirming the doctrinal elements is not enough,” he said. “Pastoral accompaniment for polygamists is urgently needed.” 

via www.pillarcatholic.com

Why you would ever want more than one wife is beyond me. If you like your wife now, you won't after you acquire another one. If you don't, it surely is the triumph of hope over experience. Africa must hold people in the grip of extreme environmental pressures.

Jack Smith’s October Surprise - WSJ

Politics hath no fury like a prosecutor scorned, and it appears the American electorate won’t be allowed to forget it. That’s the best read of special counsel Jack Smith’s newly unsealed filing in his criminal case against Donald Trump. Congratulations, Attorney General Merrick Garland: You’ve got your own 2024 “election interference” story line.

Mr. Smith filed the 165-page brief last week, his latest response to an embarrassing defeat at the Supreme Court in July. The justices rapped him for ignoring a weighty question in his Jan. 6 indictment, ruling that a president is entitled to immunity for exercising “core constitutional powers.” That decision requires a pretrial proceeding in which the trial judge sifts which of the allegedly criminal acts count as official, and ultimately ended any prospect of a trial before the election. A sober litigator would have stepped back, allowed the voters to render their judgment on Mr. Trump and his bad behavior, and regroup in November.

Here’s what Mr. Smith did instead. He rushed to file a superseding indictment in August that alleged the same four crimes, taking a minuscule view of core constitutional powers. He then requested the trial judge allow him to file an “oversized” brief—up to 180 pages—laying out the government’s arguments against immunity, and asking her to unseal it. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the requests, ignoring the Trump legal team’s opposition to a brief that was “quadruple the standard page limits” and that allowed the prosecution “to proffer their untested and biased views to the Court and the public as if they are conclusive.” That brief was made public on Wednesday, 34 days before the election.

via www.wsj.com

Kimberly Strassel.

I think AG Garland is checked out now himself. HS may be more ambulatory than his boss, but c'mon man, he needs to retire. Not that it would do much good at this point.

An Israeli Airstrike Made the World a Better Place for One Yazidi Woman – HotAir

An Israeli airstrike that killed a Palestinian member of Hamas in Gaza actually had an added benefit. Not only is the world better off for the removal of one more terrorist, in this case it also freed a young girl who had been kidnapped from her family and sold as a slave when she was just 11 years old.

via hotair.com

If I'm not mistaken, you would get in a lot of trouble if you tried this in Israel.

Biden-Harris: Ukraine and Illegal Immigrants First, Hurricane Helene Victims Last

The federal response to Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina has been a tragic example of indifference, and has exposed the true priorities of the Biden-Harris administration. 

While American citizens impacted by the hurricane grapple with the fallout, the lack of urgency to help the victims is disgusting. On Sunday, Biden smugly told reporters  that his administration had given North Carolina “everything that we have,” and insisted that there are no more resources to provide.

Even voices from the left are scratching their heads over the lack of engagement by both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 

“To show this level of cavalier indifference just literally takes my breath away,” former Bill Clinton advisor Doug Schoen told Fox News on Tuesday.

The administration, likely trying to save face in light of the criticism, has since tried to appear more engaged, just barely. For example, the Biden-Harris administration announced Wednesday that a mere $750 would be provided to residents in states devastated by Hurricane Helene. Kamala Harris herself announced this federal aid herself.

“The president and I have been paying close attention from the beginning to what we need to do to make sure the federal resources hit the ground as quickly as possible, and that includes what was necessary to make sure that we provided direct federal assistance,” she said Wednesday. “And that work has been happening.” 

She added, “And the federal relief and assistance that we have been providing has included FEMA providing $750 for folks who need immediate needs being met, such as food, baby formula, and the like. And you can apply now.”

via www.mattmargolis.com

Matt Margolis.

via Ed Driscoll at instapundit. https://instapundit.com/675923/

My Wife Apologizes for My Politics - WSJ

If, like me, you find yourself in a politically mixed marriage, being out in the world with your spouse can bring its share of difficulties. This is especially true in an election year.

As an undecided voter on the center-right, I’m the ideological odd man out in our crowd. Most of our friends mainline MSNBC. My wife has developed several coping strategies over our 50 years as a couple.

Usually, when we’re getting dressed for a party or dinner, her first line of attack—or self-defense—is to ask: “Can’t you just lie?” But for better or worse, I’m a terrible liar.

via www.wsj.com

I'm probably among the last people you would ask for advice about this, but what I find works well is just to ask questions -- not too inflammatory ones (e.g. "do you really think a boy can become a girl?") -- and let whomever I'm talking to prattle on about the evils of Trump and the GOP or whatever. It is rare beyond measure that my counter-party will ask "But what do you think?" Of course, in an academic environment this leads to having to tolerate an enormous amount of rubbish and ultimately to disillusionment. But perhaps you last a little longer this way.

Bentley Drivers of the World, Unite! - WSJ

Mr. Daggett could have been a character from the 1950s movie classic “On the Waterfront.” While presenting himself as a man of the people, the union chief made more than $900,000 last year. The New York Times reported in 2017 that he owned a 76-foot yacht and rode around in a Bentley luxury car.

Mr. Daggett’s union has a stranglehold on the ports, and as you can read nearby he intends to use it. “I will cripple you,” he said in an interview last month, referring to the ports and the U.S. economy. He means it.

The Justice Department has brought civil and criminal charges against Mr. Daggett for conspiring with mob bosses. While he won both cases, the ILA’s port stranglehold is a racket. Workers earn $39 an hour, often for doing little. This is one reason U.S. ports rank among the least efficient in the world. Mr. Daggett is demanding $69 an hour. In 2010 he said longshoremen should make more than $400,000. Some now do with overtime.

Containerization and automation have reduced port jobs, but the union’s contract entitles longshoremen to what is effectively a guaranteed income of tens of thousands of dollars regardless of whether they work. Some local union chiefs make hundreds of thousands of dollars for doing nothing. Most U.S. workers no doubt wish they could get paid for not working.

But look who’s locking arms with the Bentley-driving proletariat. None other than President Biden. “Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday. Is the 50% wage increase over six years that port employers have offered the union not fair?

via www.wsj.com

Complete and utter racket. Where are the union busters when we need them?

Biden infrastructure law gave billions to upgrade ports, now striking unions want to stop automation | Just The News

Shortly before President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, his White House showcased $17 billion in funding set aside for upgrades in U.S. port infrastructure for strengthening supply chains and boosting competitiveness. Now, he is now refusing to deal with a union standing in the way of efficiency-boosting automation technology where the U.S. lags behind. 

The discrepancy between the priorities of the widely touted Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act and President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for the labor union leading the strikes raises concerns about the benefits of pouring money into infrastructure while real upgrades are being blocked by union allies. 

The President of the National Taxpayers Union, Pete Sepp, told Just the News the government should claw back infrastructure funds because the union blocking real ways of boosting competitiveness. 

“[The infrastructure law] included $17 billion worth of new federal money to upgrade and introduce new technologies into ports. Well, now the longshoremen's union is saying, as part of the condition of going back to work, we don't want any more automation at ports. In fact, they may be calling to reverse some of the automation that's been going on,” Sepp told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show Wednesday. 

“Okay, fine. If they get that demand granted, then taxpayers have a demand too,” he said. “We want that $17 billion back, or at least the balance that hasn't been spent yet.” 

via justthenews.com

Oh heck, what's another $17 billion. Just more money to fight inflation.