I recently spoke on the topic, “Pricing in Today’s Legal Market” and thought I would share some statistics that I found during my research. How does your firm compare?

Brenda Barnes, CPA

Brenda Barnes, CPA

  • Altman Weil reports 1/3 of in-house counsels plan to decrease their spending on outside counsel over the next 12 months, while only a 1/5 planned an increase.
  • A recent survey from In the House, a new organization comprised of in-house lawyers, reports that 29% of those surveyed were “very satisfied” with their outside law firms while 62% reported they were “somewhat satisfied.”
  • The American Lawyer reports that top-line growth for The Am Law 200 increased by 24.7% over the past 6 years which is a compounded annual growth rate of 3.75%. Revenue per Lawyer grew by 12.7%.
  • Citibank’s survey of its Big Law clients indicate that top-line growth will be around 3.7%, with most of the gain explained by billing rate increases of 3.2%.
  • With lock-step compensation for partners in the distant past, firms now compensate based on measurables: originations, hours worked, management contribution. ALM reports that the ratio of highest to lowest paid partners is now 12:1.
  • According to the 2016 Am Law 100 and 200 reports, the profit margins for the top 100 was 39.5% and the combined average for the top 200 was 38.8%.
  • Associate salaries were raised by about $20,000 per attorney – this will cost the equity partners about $56,600 each.
  • Law firms that offer “very diverse teams” of lawyers tend to receive a 25% greater share of legal spending than non-diverse teams. Acritas reports that “gender” was the diversity attribute cited most often.
  • Failure to communicate! Another Acritas survey reports that only 16% of clients have been asked for formal feedback. Risky? Or is it riskier not to ask?
  • The American Lawyer reports that pro bono work may have reached its limit and may even be on the decline. According to the survey, lawyers spent 54.1 hours on pro bono work.

The Next Big Thing in Law? Brenda Barnes answers in The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/the-next-big-thing-in-law_b_14336508.html
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