Biglaw

NCAA's Latest March Madness? Winston & Strawn's Bills.

In one shining moment, plaintiffs' attorneys can make bank.

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While the NCAA’s marquee annual sporting event is heaping cash into its coffers, the group has a potential looming Biglaw bill that could put a damper on the month’s festivities.

Last year, the NCAA went to trial over an effort to cap education-related benefits for certain college athletes and ultimately lost, getting slapped with an injunction earlier this month. Now the plaintiffs’ attorneys are looking for fees and the bill is a hefty one.

Winston & Strawn, along with co-counsel at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and Pearson, Simon & Warshaw, have submitted a bill for services rendered. The bill represents over 51,000 hours of work put in by attorneys and staff behind the scenes to secure this historic ruling. One might say to those folks…

And all the years
no one knows
just how hard you worked
but now it shows…

And boy does it show. Counsel submitted a request that amounts to $29,944,894, but they’re asking for a 1.5x multiplier, making the total bill around $45 million.

What is interesting to legal observers about this request is what it says about the course of Biglaw’s business model over the last few years. For those who’ve fretted over the last several years that law firm growth is driven primarily by jacking up billing rates as opposed to genuine improvements in demand, a closer look at the bills shows just how pronounced those rate hikes have been. Jeffrey Kessler, the sports law guru running the case for Winston, was billing $1,180/hour when the case started in 2014. Five years later, Kessler is billing out at $1,515/hour. That’s about 28 percent more. Other attorneys saw a similar bump. According to American Lawyer, “Partner David Feher’s rate went from $960 to $1,245 in the same span, and partner David Greenspan’s rate rose from $875 to $1,105.”

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that first-year associates are only making about 18 percent more over that stretch.

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Is that a sustainable growth model? Well, so far clients seem to be paying — at least at the top levels of the profession. Only time will tell if there comes a breaking point where some firms have to admit that demand for their services isn’t Plastic Man levels of elastic.

This is certainly a significant bill, but while the mainstream press may wring its hands over the high cost of legal work, let’s remember that the NCAA is estimated to make $1 billion over the three weeks of the tournament, so maybe they don’t need your tears.

Winston & Strawn Details $24M in Work and $1,515 Hourly Rate in NCAA Antitrust Case [American Lawyer]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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