MoFo Bankruptcy Partners Up Billing Rates by Nearly 25 Percent

Bankruptcy billables are up more than 23 percent for some Morrison Foerster partners over last year, a court filing shows.

Hourly rates for bankruptcy partner Benjamin Butterfield and tax partner Philip Jaworskyj increased 23.2% and 23.5%, amounting to $1,725 and $1,600, respectively, the firm told a bankruptcy court Monday. Hourly rates charged by their colleague, tax partner Anthony Carbone, increased by 10% to reach $2,475. Carbone is the highest biller on the matter.

Lawyers at the firm are representing the official committee of unsecured creditors of bankrupt tire supplier American Tire Distributors, along with lawyers at Saul Ewing. The firm disclosed on Monday its hourly changes for 2025 in a January bill submitted for court approval. Blended together, the firm’s professionals charged the unsecured creditor committee 17.4% more in January than December, representing an increase in blended rate from $1,155 to $1,356, according to Monday’s filing.

Representatives for the firm and practice co-chair Lorenzo Marinuzzi, whose own rate grew by 7.5% to $2,150, didn’t reply to a request for comment Tuesday.

American Tire Distributors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2024 and a judge approved the sale of the company to lenders on Feb 10.

Compared to hourly rates charged in other Big Law bankruptcy practices, MoFo’s rates and rate increases are high for the industry, according to Wolters Kluwer data. Bankruptcy partner hourly rates in 2024 were on average $537, 11% higher than in 2023. For firms with 201 to 500 lawyers, bankruptcy rates grew 15% to $618.

More Niche, More Money

The rate changes disclosed by the firm in that bankruptcy provide a window on Big Law’s confident approach thus far to rate increases in the most high-demand areas of practice in 2025. Financial success from 2024 is driving firms to take a bullish approach to rate-setting this year, said law firm consultant Kristin Stark, a principal with Fairfax Associates. Stark said the majority of firms her consulting company works with saw an increase in demand and productivity last year.

“Firms are having a strong pipeline of demand for services,” Stark said. “In light of this expectation for demand, firms have been pretty bullish on rate increases.”

High rates and price increases correspond to the specialized nature of the legal services, Stark said, adding that clients are rejecting rate increases for legal matters that are commoditized, routine, or non-specialized, like some areas of labor and employment and general litigation.

“Pushback tends to be in areas where there’s a high volume of work and in more generalized practice areas,” Stark said. “But for practices that are specialized that are serving complex work with more niche capabilities, the rate increases are sticking.”

For its work for the creditors committee in November and December, MoFo’s team charged a total of $1.46 million in legal fees and expenses, Monday’s court filing shows. The court’s approval of the firm’s compensation for work in January would add another $485,564 to its coffers. The firm grossed $1.34 billion in revenue in 2023, according to data published by The American Lawyer.

The case is American Tire Distributors, Inc., 1:24-bk-12391, 2/24/25