Credit: jozefmicic/stock.adobe.comLaw Firms Are 'Pinching Themselves' Amid Double-Digit Profit Growth and Billing Rate Hikes
Billing rate growth continues to drive law firms' performance in 2024.
November 19, 2024 at 05:17 PM
5 minute read
What You Need to Know
- Industrywide billing rates grew by 9%, according to a Q3 report from Wells Fargo's Legal Specialty Group.
- Demand was also up by 3.7% from 3.1% at midyear, Wells Fargo's data shows.
- Wells Fargo found PEP up 23.4% among Am Law 50 firms, although collections will affect final figures.
Billing rate growth continues to drive law firms' ascent in 2024, particularly for the top 50 firms, which could see double-digit profit gains by year-end, according to a new bank report.
Standard or "rack" billing rate growth through the first nine months of the year was 10% for Am Law 50 firms, still "considerably higher" than the 7% figure tallied for both the Second 50 and the Second Hundred, according to Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group Nine-Month 2024 Survey, published Tuesday.
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