It took a global economic meltdown and a major upheaval of the legal industry, but law firms seemed to get the message that 2009 was not the year to substantially increase their billing rates.
The national average firmwide billing rate, a combination of partner and associate rates, grew by 2.5 percent during 2009 to $372, according to Legal affiliate The National Law Journal ‘s annual survey of billing rates. That’s a relatively small boost compared to the 4.3 percent increase that firms reported in 2008 and the 7.7 percent rate climb in 2007. “Law firms this year increased rates very modestly, compared to the standard rate increase of 6 to 8 percent,” said James Jones, a consultant with Hildebrandt International. “I would have expected to see that, in 2009, when the message [about the state of the economy] finally sunk in.”
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