LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Four U.S. toy companies recalled more than 340,000 products made in China including spinning Curious George tops and SpongeBob SquarePants journals because of lead-content levels that can be toxic for young children.

The paint on bindings of SpongeBob journals and address books can contain more lead than is safe, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday. Thomas & Friends tin pails, Children’s Divine Inspiration charm bracelets and Toby & Me jewelry also have too much lead, it said.

No injuries have been reported to the companies, the agency said. The announcements come after Mattel Inc., the world’s biggest toy maker, recalled more than 20 million Chinese-made items this month. China produces 80% of the toys sold in the U.S.

There are many firsts that the modern lawyer has chalked up – the blackberry drafting, the class action fee-hauls – but now there’s a new frontier, financial of course . . the $1000-an-hour fee. The WSJ reports.

The hourly rates of the country’s top lawyers are increasingly coming with something new — a comma.

A few attorneys crossed into $1,000-per-hour billing before this year, but recent moves to the four-figure mark in New York, which sets trends for legal markets around the country, are seen as a significant turning point.

On Sept. 1, New York’s Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP will raise its top rate to more than $1,000 from $950. Firm partner Barry Ostrager, a litigator, says he will be one of the firm’s thousand-dollar billers, along with private-equity specialist Richard Beattie and antitrust lawyer Kevin Arquit. The top biller at New York’s Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP hit $1,000 per hour earlier this year. At Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, also of New York, bankruptcy attorney Brad Scheler, now at $995 per hour, will likely soon charge $1,000.