news-record.com

BLOGS

The Inside Scoop

Cost of an attorney

We're waiting for the bills to show up in the county's offices that will reveal how much a couple of months' worth of private attorneys will cost Guilford County.

Based on what we saw from a bit of paid research that Nexsen Pruet did in June, it's gonna be expensive.

First of all, their billable hourly rate is $275 per hour.

A lot of people in Guilford County don't make that in a day.

The cost of 20.2 hours of work, mostly conversations between an attorney and various county staff: $5,555.

We overheard a county employee close to the legal office say this week that it appears the commissioners are working quickly on hiring a new county attorney.

Of course, plenty of this cost - public funds, all of them - is linked to the sudden departure of Sharron Kurtz and the county's difficulty in keeping an attorney on staff in her absence.

The cost of a top-tier attorney could exceed $200,000, which a committee reviewed earlier this year. That same committee also said what they think of the county's operations. Listen to the mp3.

Permalink
Tags: Guilford County, County attorney

Posted by Gerald Witt on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 4:30 pm

This article has been closed to new comments. Comments are generally closed after 14 days. However, comments may be closed earlier at the discretion of the News & Record.

Inappropriate content? Please report abuse.

Advertisement | Advertise with Us

gsostudent

August 12, 2009 - 10:24 pm EDT

A lot of people don't make that in a day?? Talk about an understatement. My job is well above minimum wage but it takes me three days to earn that much money (of course before taxes are removed, etc). Not to mention the large population in Greensboro that isn't working full time or at all.

histrion

August 13, 2009 - 9:31 am EDT

The better comparison is what your company charges customers for your time, though, which is undoubtedly *much* more than you take home at the end of the day. The attorney doesn't get all of that cash. They have to pay an office staff, keep the lights on, pay for office supplies, pay for research and paralegal work, training, etc., etc.

I'm not saying they don't personally take a healthy (and some might say obscene) sum from the remainder, of course...

Gerald Witt

August 13, 2009 - 9:37 am EDT

True.

I believe that the question that's being kicked around is whether the county wants to keep that expense in-house, so to speak. Having an outside attorney is not uncommon for governments, but some commissioners seem to be getting a little leery of the billable hours issue.