It's great pay if you can get it, and I'm sure it wasn't enough to be noticed in the legal costs of that case.

Just for frame of reference, there are 2080 work hours in a year assuming 40hrs/week. So imagine making 765k for like 5 months of work.

They need to be able to have 5 months where they can clear the calendars and just work on that. It's still a lot for 5 months, but I imagine there's a lot of downtime too. Are they getting 5+ months every year?

>hey need to be able to have 5 months where they can clear the calendars and just work on that

Otherwise known as "having a job"

Yeah. Having a job seems like it could keep you from regularly being able to stop everything for 5 months of high paid work. Maybe the money is enough from the few months that they're fine with it (and maybe it's easy for them to get a new job after or go back somewhere they've worked before). I'm genuinely curious. It seems like a lot to make for 5 months, but what do their earnings look like over a 5 or 10 year period?

I suppose its actually spread out over a long period of time

Go look at what partners at the biggest white-shoe law firms make. Over $1,000/hr.

Is that what they make or what they BILL. IT, Admin staff, paralegal, Jr lawyers, building, pro Bono and other marketing activities etc. It's paid for somehow.

believe it or not, they make more! they make money off of what the associates and junior partners bill, too. but yes, that figure is what they bill.

I believe paralegals and junior lawyers bill for their time, too, also at eye-watering rates.

The witness actually got that $850 an hour. The other stuff you mentioned was absorbed by the law firm and billed to the client(s).

are they being called in as expert witnesses?

The discussion was whether billing over $800/hr was "ridiculous." It's actually common for credentialed professionals who are at the very top of very specific fields.

Not for Samsung. Or Google.

Apple's damages expert got paid $2 million.