Battling Bills

A memo from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to its network of outside legal counsel that surfaced in the Wall Street Journal stated the Bentonville retailer is instituting a moratorium on across-the-board rate increases.

Noting the starting salary for junior associates in New York City has risen to more than $160,000, Wal-Mart expressed concern with the upward pressure these salaries create on rates for more experienced attorneys.

“The salaries that law firms choose to pay their junior associates are none of our concern,” wrote Wal-Mart associate general counsel Miguel Rivera on Nov. 1. “We have every reason to be concerned, however, about the impact of salary hikes on law firm billing rates. 

Rivera went on to write that, “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 Rivera memo also referenced an Aug. 22 article in the WSJ that called a $1,000-an-hour barrier the “vomit point for clients.”