My (very good) contract attorney is north of $750/hour. Worth every penny.

High end firms can easily be $800+/hr for attorneys. I believe Wilson Sonsini was $1200/hr for an attorney I was recommended.

That's high-end. Most of the time, all you need is a mid-level/independent lawyer that charges less than $400/hr or even bills on per-project basis.

Cost also doesn't guarantee quality. You're paying for resources, specialization, general counsel that can delegate, and insurance against mistakes. Useful but only when you really need it.

I wasn't asserting the validity or the necessity of attorney's at that price. I was simply saying that there is a market rate at that point for attorneys.

Top partners were already at $1,200/hr when I left the law in 2014. They’re now hovering around $2,000/hr.

You don't need a "top partner" for contract review.

That’s true. But for a big enough deal, you want partners to be reviewing — at least at a conceptual level — the way the deal is structured.

I’ve seen agreements that were 99% good, but a problem in the other 1% made the whole thing worthless.

Most people who bill at those rates are no better than people who bill $300.

I disagree. It is no more true in my mind than developers paid $200,000 per year are no better than developers who are paid $80,000.

In my experience working as a consultant to probably 1000 lawyers over the last 10 years-- from solos to biglaw partners-- it's absolutely true. The most highly paid are not clustered at the far end of the skill/experience bell curve.

You don't have to use $800+ attorneys. Most people use _no_ lawyers at all, and sign shit without reading. You aren't getting three times the lawyering for three times the price.