xhibit I THE SUPE RIOR COURT OF THE I RG I I SLAN FILED March eM TAMARA HARLE CLERK OF TH COURT Lega-1 F1 es Cross New Mark an Hour The Wall Street Journal February-1 T1 ue-1 sday Copyri-1 ght Factiva f1 ro-1 Dow Jones All Ri-1 ghts Reserved Copyri-1 ght Dow Jone-1 ompany Inc Section Pg A1 Leng-1 t1 ords Byline-1 By Sara Ra-1 ndazzo and Jacq-1 ueline Pal-1 ank Body The day of the hour lawye-1 ha-1 rrived Partners at some of the na-1 t1 ons t1 law firms are app-1 roaching-1 an-1 in a few cases surpassi-1 ng t1 at watershed bill-1 ing rate making the an-hour le-1 gal fees that once seemed so steep-1 lo-1 ok quaint by compari-1 son Despi-1 t1 low-1 infla-1 t1 on nd eak emand for le-1 gal services rates at arge corporate law f1 rms have-1 risen-1 by t1 a year since-1 the-1 eco-1 nomic down-1 t1 rn acco-1 rding to Citi Private Banks Law-1 Firm Group We ust rai-1 se them every year sai-1 Joh-1 Altore-1 lli finance-1 law-1 yer at DLA P1 per LLP in-1 New-1 York who says the firm ha-1 set his ra-1 t1 at more tha-1 an ho-1 ur Mr Altorelli-1 who file-1 for perso-1 nal ba-1 nkruptcy in to halt a lega-1 ba-1 t1 tle-1 with t1 estate of his former la-1 firm ewey LeBoeu-1 f1 LLP cracke-1 the hour mark a decad-1 ago His fees have risen-1 stead-1 ily ever since To soft1 the blow-1 to clients Mr.1 Altorel-1 li oes more t1 ha-1 alf hi-1 wo-1 rk1 on some kind of f1 xed-fee basis sing hourl-1 ra-1 t1 s1 is rea-1 lly anachron-1 istic ut we-1 stil-1 do it,1 he-1 sai-1 LexisNexis FACTIVA THE WALL Lega-1 F1 es Cross New Mark an Ho-1 ur Page of Raisi-1 ng rates en-1 sures that law-1 firms keep with the co-1 mpetition an-1 help-1 t1 em wrest more money from cli-1 ents who rou-1 t1 nely deman-1 discounts for all but the most sensitive work If yo-1 t1 hi-1 nk of the-1 rul-1 es of su-1 pply and dema-1 nd how in the world can-1 they kee-1 raising their rates?-1 sai-1 Jeff1 Ca-1 rr,1 a former genera-1 cou-1 nsel of oi-1 l-and-ga-1 servi-1 ces an-1 quipment compan-1 FMC Technolog-1 ies who f1 yea-1 rs has been-1 an outspo-1 ken oppone-1 nt of hou-1 rly legal rates The rate creep has boosted law-1 firms revenu-1 t1 a time when-1 man-1 of them are under pressure-1 from low-1 er-cost lega-1 l-service provide-1 rs and-1 corpo-1 rate cli-1 ents that are keeping more legal-1 work in-hou-1 se Reve-1 nue at law-1 firms rose last year accordi-1 ng to W1 lls F1 rgo Private Banks Legal-1 Sp-1 ecialty Group though dema-1 nd rose just Lots of law firms wi-1 ll charge wh-1 atever the market can bea-1 sai-1 the head of one-1 of the-1 ations la-1 rgest law firms Docume-1 nts fil-1 ed in chapter ban-1 kruptcy cases off1 ra-1 re public gli-1 mpse at mounting fees These court filing-1 show the rates of artners speciali-1 zing in corporate restructurin-1 as wel-1 as tho-1 se ith sp-1 ecialties like-1 tax litigation-1 and corp-1 orate law A revie-1 of filing-1 over the pa-1 st1 thre-1 months in-1 about two ozen ban-1 kruptcy cases sho-1 ws that senio-1 partners routine-1 ly charge betwee-1 and-1 an hour with top rates at several large-1 aw firms exceeding-1 Proskaue-1 Rose LPs hourl-1 y1 partner illing-1 rate has climbed as high-1 as while-1 Ropes Gray LLPs tops out at court pape-1 rs sho-1 Kirklan-1 Ellis LLPs top-1 hou-1 rly bi-1 lling rate now-1 And rates t1 two f1 rms Akin Gump-1 Strauss Hauer Feld LLP an-1 Ska-1 dden Arps Slate Meagher Flom LLP peak at hour Repre-1 sentatives of the law firms decline-1 t1 co-1 mment In di-1 sclosing their firmwi-1 de rate increases many firms t1 el-1 the courts it is a standa-1 rd way of keepi-1 ng pa-1 ce with econo-1 mic and other condi-1 t1 ons T1 he-1 se include-1 risi-1 ng fixed costs su-1 ch as real estate and salari-1 es Still on-1 ly elite awyers can-1 charge an our or more-1 Such rates are-1 f1 und almo-1 st1 exclusively-1 in New-1 York and othe-1 ma-1 jor markets and only in the lea-1 st1 pri-1 ce-sensitive field-1 such-1 as-1 merg-1 ers and acqui-1 sitions restructuring-1 tax antitrust and high-1 st1 kes litigation-1 an-1 appeal-1 For lawyers at the very top of t1 ose fields hourly rates can hi-1 t1 or even You have a ve-1 ry few peop-1 le at the ve-1 ry top where price is almost no-1 obj-1 ect,1 said lega-1 con-1 sultant Bruce-1 MacEwe-1 who li-1 kens it to the wa-1 cel-1 ebrities sports stars and best-sell-1 ing authors are pai-1 It is a talent market Most lawye-1 rs t1 fall-1 well bel-1 ow those high-1 marks In su-1 rvey of in-house le-1 gal depa-1 rt1 me-1 nts by BT1 I Consu-1 lting Group t1 verage high-1 est rate paid-1 for law--1 f1 rm pa-1 rt1 ers as an hour in up more than Lega-1 F1 es Cross New Mark an Ho-1 ur Page of from three years ea-1 rlier Of the-1 re-1 spondents ad paid more-1 t1 ha-1 an-1 our for a lawyer an-1 t1 highest rate those in the survey pai-1 was an hou-1 For many firms the stated rate is simply startin-1 point in di-1 scussions with corp-1 orate law dep-1 artments As re-1 sult said legal co-1 nsultant Ward B1 wer of Altman-1 W1 il sophi-1 st1 cat1 law f1 rms t1 nd to impl-1 ement annu-1 al rate in-1 creases to offset cl-1 ients requests for discounts Such discou-1 nts are-1 be-1 coming more commonp-1 lace A de-1 cade ago law firms could typicall-1 ge-1 t1 clien-1 t1 to pay aroun-1 of their stated rates accordi-1 ng t1 Tho-1 mson Reuters Peer Moni-1 t1 La-1 st1 year that fell to less than Smalle-1 comp-1 anies can get squ-1 eezed the most on fees because they dont send enough-1 work to any one law firm to get the best eals Compa-1 nies wi-1 t1 bi-1 llion or more in annu-1 al reven-1 ue were-1 twice as-1 likely as those with less t1 ha-1 millio-1 in revenu-1 t1 use some-1 form of alternative fee accordin-1 to a survey from industry trade group-1 the Associatio-1 of Corpo-1 rate Counsel-1 Some ind-1 ustry atchers view the raise-a-1 nd-discoun-1 ap-1 proach with skeptici-1 sm If clie-1 nts are pushi-1 ng ba-1 ck on rates the-1 answe-1 isnt to rai-1 se them and then ask for a discount Mr MacEwen said The answe-1 r1 is to provi-1 de better t1 t1 value License-1 thi-1 rt1 cle from Dow Jones Rep-1 rint S1 rvice Notes PUBLISHER Dow-1 Jo-1 nes Company Inc Load-1 Date F1 bruary End of Docume-1 nt
