THREAD: Regarding the "Warren $2 million in consulting fees!" story: Nearly 20 years ago, I was retained as an expert witness by a law firm representing a website developer who was suing a client of theirs for failure to pay for the work done. 1/
I had only been a web developer myself for about a year and had completely lucked into the gig (the lawyer had originally mixed my web design company up with a different web developer, but decided to hire me anyway). He asked how much I charged for expert witness services. 2/
I had no clue what the going rate was, so I just told him what I normally charged for web design work, which was $50/hour at the time (remember, that's *billable* time only...it does NOT translate into $100K/year, believe me). He laughed and told me to triple the rate. 3/
I couldn't understand why the guy looking to hire me *told* me to triple my hourly rate, but I wasn't about to question it. (Oh, and I had no moral/ethical issue with the case--the other developer was *completely* in the right and their client had *totally* screwed them over). 4/
Anyway, it was explained to me by a few others in the know that if an expert witness charges too LITTLE for their services, they aren't seen as being credible on the stand by the jury. 5/
To *me*, $150/hour was a crazy amount of money just to explain how HTML and registering a domain name works. To a law firm suing a jewelry store (that was the web client) for a million dollars, paying me $150/hour was a bargain. 6/
According to this website (devoted to...expert witnesses, amazingly), the *median* hourly rate for non-medical expert witnesses is $245 - $275/hr. 7/
blog.seakexperts.com/expert-witness…
blog.seakexperts.com/expert-witness…
In 20 years as a website developer, I've been retained as an expert witness twice. Here's a mini-thread about the *2nd* time (that time I was retained by the *defendant's* law firm, and this one was much more confusing...BOTH sides were wrong IMHO:
Anyway, my point isn't that Warren making $ on top of her generous salary is "bad" or "good". I'm just providing context to explain that the dollar figures being thrown around here, while seemingly high to most people, are actually pretty standard for the type of work she did. 9/
In some ways this is like people mistrusting Hillary for being paid $675K for a few speeches to Goldman Sachs. Bernie was obsessed with her "releasing the transcripts", presumably because it MUST have included something damning. 10/
The thing is, to most people, $675K for a speech seems absolutely ABSURD...but to GOLDMAN F*CKING SACHS, it's chump change. Here's a story about some rich asshole who paid Aerosmith $1 million to play at his daughter's 13th birthday party. 11/
alux.com/most-expensive…
alux.com/most-expensive…
Was G-S paying Hillary $675K to "influence her"? It's possible...but it's equally possible they just wanted bragging rights to say that they had her as their keynote speaker. The rich guy wasn't trying to "influence" Aerosmith, he just wanted boasting rights w/his rich buddies.
As for the *contents* of Hillary's speech to G-S...what exactly did Bernie THINK she told them? Was it a Bond Villian-esque plot to take over the world? Does he think she was cackling with glee about crushing poor people? Of course not. 13/
The WORST it likely included was her saying a few nice things about financial institutions. I've attended a few rubber chicken dinners...not for G-S, of course, but I'm pretty sure the speeches are mostly the same bland, forgettable pablum regardless of the organization. 14/
Anyway, getting back to Warren, I don't care that she made a lot of money as a consultant--given her expertise, she's entitled. She's calling for her own tax rate to be increased as well, so bully for her.
The only relevance it has is what type of work she actually *did*. 15/
The only relevance it has is what type of work she actually *did*. 15/
If she was helping Evil Corporations do Evil Things, ok, that's bad. That's what everyone wants Buttigieg to explain re. his time at McKinsey, right?
If she *wasn't* doing Evil Things, however, then the *amount* she made consulting is irrelevant IMO. 16/
If she *wasn't* doing Evil Things, however, then the *amount* she made consulting is irrelevant IMO. 16/
OK, I lost my point partway through there but I think I got back to it in the end. Just remember that Robert Downey Jr. was paid $75 million to start in Avengers: Endgame. He was onscreen for 35 minutes, so that's $2.1 million per minute. 17/
businessinsider.com/marvel-cinemat…
businessinsider.com/marvel-cinemat…
...yet no one seems to think that RDJ is Evil or Corrupt because of it. The question is, are you being paid a lot of money to do *good things*, *neutral things* or *evil things*. If it's good or neutral, it's not an issue. If it's Evil, that's when it's a problem. /end
FOLLOW-UP: As for *what* she was doing, according to this, it was Good Things, not Evil Things:
