I have heard that patent litigation can be very expensive as far as legal fees are concerned - as in millions of dollars.

But I think a better way to approach answering your question is as follows:

1) For legal fees charged by Lecky, well, I trust him about as far as I can throw him (and I'm pretty weak). There are lots of things that can get baked in there and we've obviously seen evidence of that.

2) But for legal fees charged by outside law firms that are hired by TPL, I would be less concerned and more inclined to think they are fair - unless of course the outside firm is somehow Lecky's buddy (but I don't see evidence of that here).

The reason I am less concerned about #2 is that there does seem to be some consensus (e.g. Wall Street Journal, CNN) that the emergence of offshore legal services, coupled with new corporate belt tightening has ended the days of lawyers charging as much as they want and clients just taking it. Clients are said to be in control and law firms are said to be more competitive with one another - more fiercely fighting one another for business. And that means fair (-ish) fees.

Look at it this way, Lecky fired our old firm and hired this new one. If you were the managing partner at our new firm, would you be comfortable charging an arm-and-a-leg knowing that Lecky'll can you at the drop of a hat? I wouldn't. Which is why I'm not so concerned about #2.

Of course, my logic and a $1.50 still can't buy you coffee at Starbucks...