When $20,000 is all in a day’s work …

How much is one day of work worth to a barrister? For those in this elite group the answer is in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Some of the barristers commanding huge daily rates, left to right, Neil Young QC, Rowena Orr QC, and Bret Walker SC.

How much is one day of work worth to a barrister? For those who belong to an elite group of gifted commercial practitioners, the answer could be $25,000.

They are high-priced, high-profile and often sign up for complex cases with blue-chip clients prepared to spend big to protect their interests.

But Matt Howard SC, president of the Australian Bar Association, said barristers who earned the “eye-catching” figure of $25,000 a day were few and far between. “Let’s say a prominent silk is reported as charging $25,000 or more per day, that’s not what the bar across the board is charging and it isn’t representative of usual or median fees,” he said.

Among the select few who do charge up to $25,000 a day is Bret Walker SC, the man who will appear for Christian Porter against the ABC in what has been dubbed the “defamation trial of the ­century.”

He will be joined by Sue Chrysanthou SC, who was appointed senior counsel last year and is one of Sydney’s most celebrated defamation barristers.

She commands a daily rate of $7000.

The pair will face off against Justin Gleeson SC, who is expected to charge the ABC about $15,000 a day. Occasionally, however, the former solicitor-general can also collect fees of up to $25,000 a day.

 

According to independent legal publication Chambers and Partners, Mr Walker and Mr Gleeson are among a group of 12 “star” and “band one” barristers. Retaining a star, legal insiders say, can cost $20,000 a day.

Also included in that category are Allan Myers QC and Neil Young QC in Melbourne and Noel Hutley SC, David Jackson QC and John Sheahan QC in ­Sydney.

Mr Myers, who reportedly charges up to $22,000 a day, has represented some of the biggest names in business, including ­Andrew Forrest, Gina Rinehart and Alan Bond.

The average annual salary for a barrister is $98,000, but the cost of a QC or SC can range between $6000 to $20,000 a day, while a senior junior is likely to charge between $3500 and $6000 a day.

“Of course, there are barristers who have a profile and are well-known names, and why wouldn’t you be fascinated by them and what they are charging?” Mr Howard said. “But that’s not the whole Bar.”

Wendy Harris QC, a leading Melbourne barrister who charges $16,000 a day, said there was ­always room at the top.

“Ruth Higgins SC is a brilliant young star (and) Rowena Orr QC absolutely made that royal commission her own,” Ms Harris said.

“There are very few women of my seniority doing commercial cases.

“One of the problems we’ve had in the past is that women get picked off for the bench really early.”

Those with special expertise, meanwhile, charge a premium. Barristers who specialise in tax, for example, can often add a premium of 20 per cent to their daily rate, so valued is their tax acumen.

“BHP has a lot more money than a petty thief,” said Chris Blanden QC, president of the Victorian Bar Council.

“For example, legal aid in a criminal case might not be more than a couple of hundred dollars a day.”

While brilliance in the courtroom is a prerequisite for any top silk, the pandemic has forced the country’s barristers to master an unexpected skill: performing on camera. “It takes away some of the courtroom theatrics that has been the stock in trade for some ­people,” Ms Harris said.

“When you strip that out of their advocacy toolkit, they come back to the pack a bit.”