Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Marketing & PR Blogs -> Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog

Legal Marketing & PR

: Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog

New Research on Law Firms Fees and Profitability

By Larry Bodine, Esq.

How important is business development to law firms? Very – with most law firms getting 11% to 25% of their annual revenue from new clients, according to the new study Fees and Pricing Benchmark Report published by RainToday.com Research. The report is a treasure trove of key data about how much law firms charge and how much they earn.

The new report about law firms and the legal profession contains:

• 51 pages of commentary and analysis.
• 51 charts and tables that explicitly detail surprising findings.
• 7 major pricing recommendations to recharge your marketing and sales outreach.

Median fees and discounts

Universally, the bigger the law firm, the higher its rates, according to the research. For example the median rate for larger law firms earning more than $10 million per year was $525 per hour for the highest-level partners and $200 for entry-level associates. For smaller firms earning less than $10 million per year, the median rate was $300 for the highest-level lawyers and $175 for entry level lawyers.

However, discounting is common practice. While some respondents criticized the practice of discounting in their survey comments, 76% of all firms discount their fees versus published rates, or rates they might have mentioned in an initial client conversation — with the average discount amounting to 9.9%.

Order your own copy of this essential research.  Learn if you can raise your fees today.  Visit the LawMarketing Store for more information.

Standard rates vs. the actual rates differ for top-level lawyers. For those firms that use a standard set of hourly billable rates for their lawyers—either published or for internal use only—the median average realized hourly rate for highest-level lawyers is 6% less than the standard or published rate ($400 vs. $375), and for upper-level lawyers the median actual rate is 9% less. For all other levels of lawyers, there is no difference between the standard and realized rate. (See Figure 3.4 and 3.5)

For the rest of the story and the charts visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on July 10, 2008 (boomark / email).