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Too many people focus on just the rate. Remember, there are 2 components to the bottom line on your legal bill. (1) Rate, and (2) hours.
The rate is fixed, but the hours are highly variable. Using that variable, the attorney can make your bill whatever he wants it to be. Really, the hourly rate is pretty much unimportant, because of the other variables that make up the bill. All that really matters is how good the work is, and what the bottom line cost is.
Keep careful track of what he is doing, and make sure you are happy that he is doing it efficiently, and that the bill makes sense at the end of the month.
After you get your first bill, call him and, in a very nice manner, question him about some of the minor charges. Not in a complaining way, just in a "oh, I saw this and was wondering what it was for" way. It's a way of letting him know that you are carefully looking at the bills, instead of just getting and paying them. It may help to take a bit of the lead out of his pencil the next time he prepares his bill.
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