Dive Brief:

• The largest 50 law firms increased their market share in the U.S. from 44.8% in 2021 to 47.3% last year amid rate increases across firms of different sizes and in all practice areas, according to a report from LexisNexis CounselLink.
• The median hourly rate charged by partners at the largest 50 firms in 2022 was $920, a figure 46% higher than the $630 median rate charged by partners at the second-largest tier of firms.
• Average timekeeper rates increased in 2022 at the highest levels since CounselLink first produced its annual Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report in 2013, with the average partner rate increasing 4.5%. By comparison, the average partner rate grew by 3.5% in 2020 and 3.4% in 2021.

Dive Insight:

The largest 50 law firms increased their U.S. market share by seeing the strongest gains in corporate, regulatory and compliance, and real estate work, according to a press release about the CounselLink 2023 Trends Report.

Partners handling regulatory and compliance work last year charged an average of $730 an hour, the second highest rate among practice areas.

“Matters in this area are generally viewed by GCs as being higher risk and critical to the business, so they want to engage the best firms to handle them,” said Kris Satkunas, director of strategic consulting at LexisNexis CounselLink. “It’s not uncommon for GCs to be willing to pay a premium rate for complex, high-risk, mission-critical legal work.”

The largest law firms also performed well...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMid2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmxlZ2FsZGl2ZS5jb20v...