1K For 1 Hour: America's Elite Lawyers Aren't Cheap

If you want to sit down with a Supreme Court litigator, it’ll cost plenty – at least $1,000 an hour, according to FindLaw. That’s more than the average American family makes in a week, but it’s at the very low end of what litigators who argue before the Supreme Court charge. For example, Theodore Olson, the eighth-most successful litigator according to a study conducted by USC Ph.D. candidate Adam Feldman, charges $1,800 per hour. A Reuters report earlier this year found that just 66 lawyers dominated the Supreme Court docket. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it plainly: “[B]usiness can pay for the best counsel money can buy. The average citizen cannot. That’s just a reality.”