<p>“Do they care if the person had 7 years of experience or 8 years? I highly doubt it.”</p>
<p>Well, then you’re mistaken. At the firm I worked at (and all other firms I know of), clients are billed at different rates based on which lawyer is working for them. The fee charged for a lawyer with 8 years experience is indeed greater than that of one with 7 years of experience. It doesn’t matter whether the 7-year lawyer went to a ‘better’ law school or has other skills–it’s strictly based on their class year at the firm (by class year I don’t mean when they finished school but their seniority at the firm–and people who come in from clerkships or other legal jobs often enter the firm not as first years but with a class year that reflects their prior experience).</p>