First, we read on the Law Marketing Blog that $1,000 hourly fees “are not out of the question, if it is a ‘bet the company’ type matter,” which blog author Tom Kane then acknowledges is a rare situation. And then we read in The National Law Journal that firms are learning to cope with alternative billing plans, which “create their own sets of challenges in dealing with outside counsel.” The article noted that “more than 85% of in-house counsel are testing out alternative billing arrangements, according to a recent survey sponsored by Chicago law firm Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd. Sixty percent of the 162 in-house counsel who responded to the online survey on managing litigation expenses also reported success with fee arrangements other than the traditional hourly billing method.”
We follow such news with interest for two reasons. One of our most popular products in the ALM Research Store is the annual NLJ Billing Survey, which canvasses NLJ 250 firms for their high, low, and average hourly rates for partners and associates, as well as their alternative billing practices. Secondly, we’ve just concluded the first-ever ALM Research Billing Survey of billing rates and practices by lawyers at small and midsize firms and solo practices across the U.S. The full report will be available later this fall. (If you want to be notified when it is available for sale, send an email to [email protected].) There were over 5,000 respondents, and all that data is still being analyzed. But we can say that 88% of the responding lawyers said that they offer alternative billing methods. And only a few said that their highest hourly billing rate exceeded $1,000.
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