February 22, 2007
Billing Rates for Midsized Law Firms
The March 2007 issue of the Law Office Management & Administration Report from IOMA, included a few highlights from the organization’s 2006-2007 Law Firm Management Survey.
The survey indicated that midsized firms increased billing rates an average 7.2 percent. In morepartnerincome’s view, the increase is continuing evidence of midsized firm pricing power. Midsized firms have a significant pricing advantage over big law. And there continues be a wide variance between billing rates by size.
Geography also has a lot to do with law firm billing rates. The highest rates are enjoyed by firms in the Mid-Atlantic, the region stretching from Virginia to New York. Using that region as 100 percent, the table below illustrates the variance reported by IOMA.
Depending on where you are located, apply the appropriate percentages above to the table by size to get an idea about prices in your area.
The wide variation in billable rates illustrates the fallacy of an annual price increase strategy. Law firms with unnecessarily low rates remain low as annual increases raise the tide for all. The majority of midsized firms can significantly increase rates and still have a pricing advantage over big law. For a way out of the low rate box, read the prior post Partner Income Related to Law Firms Fees.
For additional information or to purchase the complete results from IOMA’s 2006—2007 Law Firm Management Survey, contact IOMA subscriber services at 212/244-0360 or email subserve@ioma.com.
Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
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