I was peripherally involved in several court cases, and the litigation cost often was the prime determinant on how we proceeded (or didn't). The clock was ticking, and got into the millions very quickly. I recall one outside lawyer our guys liked a lot who billed 20 hours a day, and they claimed he actually worked that much and was worth it at something around $1K an hour.
The others in that firm weren't so expensive, maybe $500 an hour.
I got some "free lunches" at times.