Wal-Mart's Moratorium on Hike in Billable Hour Rates

Wal-Mart’s associate general counsel, Miguel Rivera Sr., sent a memo last Friday to the “relationship partners” of Wal-Mart’s “outside counsel network” regarding the retail chain’s concerns about rising first-year associate salaries. The memo refers to the recent decisions of some New York firms to push first-year associate salaries to more than $160,000.

You can find the entire text of the memo on the WSJ Law Blog, but essentially, the mammoth discount chain is putting its foot down when it comes to billable hour rates: “In an effort to address some of our concerns about hourly rates for legal services, we are today announcing a moratorium on across-the-board rate increases. Until further notice, we will only consider reasonable, individual requests for rate increases for those attorneys in your firm who are performing at an exceptional level and whose experience and knowledge is adding substantial value toward meeting Wal-Mart’s legal objectives.”

The memo says climbing starting salaries may also be leading to the “push in larger markets for partners to break what’s been described as the ‘$1,000 per hour barrier.’” Or in Wal-Mart speak, the more-than-a-plasma-television per hour barrier.

Comments

[blueSK]

@LAB - here here. When I read this story in the Journal this morning, I was thinking the same thing: "that is SO like Wal-Mart."

This thought was followed by other snarky inner monologue quips like:

1. "maybe Walmart could get the government to pay for their lawyers' healthcare"

2. "maybe Walmart could use the money they are saving on tax evasion in places like NC to in fact keep up with the rising associate costs"

3. "maybe Walmart could get lawyers from China to do the work instead and pressure them to cut their rates, even if it means more lead gets through the cracks"

[LAB]

Well, isn't it just like Wal-Mart to set its own expected hourly rate to be charged? Maybe Wal-Mart isn't a worthy client. They have in-house counsel. Perhaps they should make better use of that source of legal assistance. They could then pay the rate they want without worrying about the legal industry standard. Why, they could even pay their in-house counsel the minimun wage, just like their cashiers! What a concept!