The average partner billing rate at a ‘Largest 50’ firm is $627 per hour, versus $447 per hour at a firm in the next largest tier, according the latest LexisNexis CounselLink Electronic Legal Management Trends (ELM) Report. The ‘largest 50’ US law firms are defined as those with 750 or more lawyers and firms in the second largest category defined as firms with 501 up to 750 lawyers.When looking at partner rates by practice area, mergers and acquisitions work commanded the highest billing rates at $634 per hour. Corporate work came in a close second at $575 per hour, followed by regulatory and compliance at $543 per hour and IP trademark work at $501 per hour.

Growth

Six major cities showed partner billing rate growth of more than 3.5 per cent year on year. These were:  Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Seattle and Washington. Five states showed partner billing rate growth of more than 6.5 per cent year-over-year - Indiana, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Utah and Washington. 

Consolidation 

The latest ELM Trends Report, which is based on nearly $26 billion in actual corporate legal spending processed via the CounselLink system, also revealed that law firm consolidation was increasing. It showed that corporate clients were continuing to use fewer firms to handle the bulk of their outside legal work. The report highlighted that more than 62 per cent of clients in the CounselLink data pool using less than 10 firms to handle at least 80 per cent of their legal work. Retail and trade companies show the highest degree of law firm consolidation at 77 per cent, while the insurance industry shows the lowest degree of consolidation at 42 per cent. The report is available for download here: http://bit.ly/2lwgQdw