RALEIGH, NC, April 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In 2024, law firm billing rates continued to climb but at a slightly lower rate compared to the prior year. The largest law firms command the highest hourly rates in high-value practice areas, an exclusive new report from LexisNexis® CounselLink® has found.
Average partner rates increased 5.1% in 2024, down from the highest-recorded partner rate increase of 5.4% in 2023. In 2024, as in 2023, the median partner in the largest law firms billed at a rate that was 61% higher than the median partner in the next tier of firms, confirming a wide rate gap between the largest 100 firms and the next tier.
Law firms of 750+ lawyers continue to lead share of wallet, particularly in two perceived high-value practice areas that marked exponential increases in median blended average matter rates. Mergers & Acquisitions saw an increase in median partner rates in 2024 of 12.4%, while Regulatory & Compliance boosted median partner rates in 2024 of 8.3%. These two matter categories saw the average blend of timekeeper rates increase more than 5% relative to 2023.
“Economic uncertainty and ongoing technological change put pressure on corporate legal departments,” said Pamela Gelfond, Vice President of LexisNexis CounselLink. “The CounselLink law firm benchmark data provides insights that help navigate this rocky and evolving landscape more clearly.”
The CounselLink trends report draws on the extensive CounselLink Insight Benchmarking Database of more than $67 billion in legal spending across more than 510,000 timekeepers and more than 1.8 million matters. It provides detailed insights on eight key metrics, including law firm partner fees by firm size, hourly rates by practice area, firm size and location, and a snapshot of hourly rates in 18 countries. Significantly, trends report data comes from actual invoices paid to outside counsel by corporate legal.
Other key findings in the report include:
- Billing rates for top-tier timekeepers in high-value practices are exceptionally high, with some partners charging over $2,300 per hour and high-end associates nearing $2,000 per hour in 2024.
- Rate increases are highly correlated with practice area rates. Lawyers in practices charging the highest rates in 2024 are generally the same ones who raised their rates the most on a percentage basis year over year.
- Large Law increased market share from 49.0% in 2023 to 49.3% in 2024. Additionally, Large Law increased its share of new matter work in 2024 which may be a leading indicator of a future gain in market share.
- Trends indicate that the adoption of alternative fee arrangements (AFA) within Employment & Labor is growing. In 2024, 28.5% of Employment & Labor matters were billed under an AFA compared to 26.9% in 2023 and 24.7% in 2022. The percentage of Intellectual Property matters billed under an AFA is stable in 2024 compared to 2023.
- The 61% differential for the largest firms vs the next tier of firms is the same as was reported in 2023 but remains the largest gap CounselLink has recorded in the 12 years of tracking the metric. The differential was 46% for 2022 rates relative to 2021.
- 2024 is the first year where the median partner rate in the largest tier of firms exceeds $1,000.
"While select timekeeper rates are climbing at near-record levels, we're seeing lower increases in overall matter rates across many practice areas," said Gelfond. "This suggests corporate legal departments are effectively mitigating rate increases through strategic management of their timekeeper mix—carefully selecting which firms, attorney levels and specific timekeepers handle their matters. It's a powerful demonstration of how data-informed decision-making can help legal departments optimize their spending while maintaining quality representation."
The LexisNexis CounselLink 2025 Trends Report: Benchmark Metrics to Empower Legal Cost Management, now in its 12th consecutive year, is available here.
About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis® Legal & Professional provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 11,800 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.
About CounselLink
LexisNexis® CounselLink® is a leading enterprise legal and contract lifecycle management solution designed to help corporate legal departments gain visibility into their work, matters, contracts, vendors, and financials. CounselLink+™ includes AI-powered tools across the cloud-based platform to help control costs, maximize productivity and make better decisions — all supported by powerful analytics and data that demonstrate legal department value across the enterprise. For nearly 30 years, LexisNexis has been providing innovative solutions for corporate legal departments crafted from insights of thought leaders, industry expertise and customer feedback. Contact CounselLink for more information.
Name: Tracey Iverson Email: tracey.iverson@lexisnexis.com Job Title: Marketing Manager, CounselLink Phone: 248-376-3341
