[eru]

That's what they charge for partners. Normal people easily get charged out for 50 USD per hour. Try calling a plumber to see for yourself.

That doesn't mean that they actually get that much money for every hour worked, since the billed hours have to pay unbillable costs like office rent, admin overhead, taxes etc.

If you are willing to look beyond the rich world: world average GDP per capita is something like 10k USD. At 2000 hours worked per year, that 0.5 USD per hour.

Your `average' person already makes 20 times as much as the actual average person.

(Keep in mind, that the median is lower than the average. Check out http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17512040)

[beedogs]

> If you are willing to look beyond the rich world: world average GDP per capita is something like 10k USD. At 2000 hours worked per year, that 0.5 USD per hour.

No it isn't. It's $5 an hour, barely under the US minimum wage.

[eru]

Thanks for catching that! Sorry, I obviously can't do arithmetic.

Interesting that the global gdp is that high, actually.

Comparing to the minimum wage is still a bit misleading, since the wage share of GDP is far from 100%.

[rhino369]

They make roughly 500k-3 million if they bill that rate. Potentially more if they have huge clients but that's rarer.

Firm partners are heavily compensated based on how much work they bring in, at most firms. But it varies.

[hga]

And what's the value of a law firm partner who helped set up and oversees an operation that saves you from a patent troll?

This firm was diligent enough to question the very basis of the lawsuit and ferret out evidence that evidently neither of the parties realized they had that the patents had been properly bulk licensed. I've worked with some very good corporate lawyers, and learned from them and other sources that such diligent competence is by no means a given.