Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1878 — Lawyers’ Fees in San Francisco. [ARTICLE]

Lawyers’ Fees in San Francisco.

The heaviest legal incomes in the city vary from $50,000 to $60,000 per annum. On the other hand, there artplenty of lawyers struggling for a practice who do not average S3O per month the year round. Some of our leading attorneys require a fee of SI,OOO before having anything to do with a case. Important fees in criminal cases rargefrom $250 to $2,500, and instances are common where much larger sums have been t-T,. 1Q74 Wm TT Patterson the late John B Felton received SIO,OOO for defeating the Local- Option law before the Supreme Court. They only worked on the case about two weeks, and worked in very leisurely style at that. The money was placed on deposit beforehand, and when a favorable decision was announced all they had to do was to go to the bank and get it. Each of them received about $20,000, equal to about S3OO an hour, or $5 a minute that he was actually occupied with the case. Tn the celebrat d city slip cases, Mr. Felton’s fees amounted to $250,000. On another occasion he received $30,000 for his services in a Spanish land-grant contest, and on still another occasion was paid SIO,OOO on condition that he would not appear as attorney in a certain pending case. In 1870 S. W. Sanderson resigned the high position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California m order to become attorney of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. The inducemen’ offered was in proportion to the sacrifice, and consisted of a permanent salary of SI,OOO per month, which was subsequently increased to $2,000 per month. —San -Francisco Cail