IN THIS ISSUE

FYI: “Billing” is the topic for this newsletter. We recently completed a monumental effort here at ALM Research—conducting and publishing a report of Billing Rates & Practices among solo practitioners and small and midsize firm lawyers. It is a landmark study, with over 5,000 lawyers across the U.S. responding and providing information about their billing rates, policies, and alternative practices. Read more about it below. Lots of interesting information came out of this survey.

The NLJ Billing Survey (of large firms) was recently released, with some additions to our product this year. And though its scope is regional, we’ve found that there is a lot of interest in the Florida Billing Survey, conducted and published by our affiliated newspaper in Miami, the Daily Business Review.

In addition, we looked through our current syndicated research products to see what additional light could be shed on the topic of billing, and found that the Practice Group Management Survey has some rather dismal findings about how few law firm business units track the metrics of their own operations, including the billing rates they use.

Be sure to read Chuck Lowry's Q&A column for information about two "goodies" available to subscribers which are not in the database.
 

Read on,
Margaret Daisley
NewsLine Editor

Landmark Study of Billing Rates and Practices at Solo Practices and Smaller Firms
Just as the year was ending, we finally sent the ALM Research Survey Report: Billing Rates & Practices to the printer. This was our first-ever survey of billing rates and practices at solo practices and smaller firms, and it was a huge effort, starting last spring when we did a test survey of Illinois lawyers. During the summer we sent invitations to lawyers all over the U.S. to take our web survey. Ultimately, over 5,000 law firm lawyers participated, most of them the leader, manager, partner, shareholder, or owner of their firm.
 More

NLJ Billing Survey: Billing Rates Are Rising at Large Firms
According to the National Law Journal’s report of their annual billing survey (2007 NLJ Billing Survey), average attorney billing rates “shot up” by 7.7% over the previous year. This year, the average billing rate for large firms (over 170 lawyers) was $348.
 More

Billing Rates and Practices: A Regional Perspective
Who would have thought that the Florida Billing Survey would be such a popular product? It’s regional, rather than national, in scope. And yet it covers the hourly rates of 171 Florida attorneys, listed by name, firm, and title. Over 35 Florida firms are represented in this report, which comes from Miami-based newspaper, The Daily Business Review.
 More

Our Research Partners
Though not specifically about billing rates and practices, the recently-released Law Firm Practice Group Management Survey, a joint effort of ALM Research and Altman Weil, has some information of interest on the subject.
 More

QUICK LINKS

The new ALM Research Survey Report of Billing Rates & Practices provides information and analysis of billing rates and practices of over 5,000 lawyers across the U.S.—solo practitioners, and lawyers from small and midsize firms. Data is segmented by firm size, geography, practice area, years in practice, client industry, gender, and more.

The NLJ Billing Survey of large firms was first conducted in 1989. Back then partner billing rates averaged $275 on the high end, and $158 on the low end. In the 2007 NLJ Billing Survey, partner billing rates averaged $634 on the high end and $310 on the low end.

Need some research on billing rates in South Florida? The Florida Billing Survey has data from both 2006 and 2007 available.

Don’t forget to read the ALM Research Blog, which frequently focuses on the topic of billings.

In this issue of NewsLine, Chuck Lowry's Q&A column describes two spreadsheets available to subscribers, one which tracks updates to associate compensation, and one which tracks updates to office openings and closings and significant personnel shifts.