Wolters Kluwer study finds law firm rate increases remain elevated

ELM Solutions’ LegalVIEW Insights report shows that corporate legal departments continue to feel cost pressures

New data from Wolters Kluwer’s LegalVIEW Insights report series suggests that early 2024 law firm rates charted a volatile and inconsistent trajectory. The findings depict an industry still grappling with the impact of the strong, consistent rate increases that faced many corporate legal departments in 2023.

“Successfully absorbing the cost of ongoing law firm rate increases remains a challenge for corporate legal departments,” said Jennifer McIver, Director of Legal Operations and Industry Insights at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions. “However, we continue to see evidence that early firm engagement, sophisticated RFP processes, and staunch enforcement of billing guidelines can mitigate spend.”

The LegalVIEW Insights series leverages the more than $180 billion in legal invoice data housed in Wolters Kluwer’s LegalVIEW database. Expert analysis reveals the trends shaping legal spend across industries such as finance and securities, insurance, manufacturing, life sciences, and real estate.

Additional insights found in LegalVIEW Insights volume 2024-1 include:

• Data captured through April 2024 suggests a more fragmented landscape for law firm rates. For example, the manufacturing and life sciences industries experienced average rate increases of 9.7% and 9.9% respectively. Meanwhile the financial and insurance sectors saw average rate decreases of 4.9% and 4.6%.

• 2023 boasted an average rate increase of 5.6% and a median 4.0%. The proximity of median to mean suggests that rate increases were a consistent, widespread reality impacting many corporate legal departments rather than driven by a few isolated outliers.

• The only real signs of a 2023 reprieve came from Am Law 151-200 firms, which reported a significant median rate decrease of 8.1%. However, data collected through April 2024 suggests those fortunes may already be reversing with a median rate increase of 10%.

• Upticks in rates between 4 and 10% accounted for 21.6% of all rate increases in 2023, compared to only 18.8% the year prior.

For more information about Wolters Kluwer’s please visit: www.wolterskluwer.com.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information, software solutions and services for professionals in healthcare; tax and accounting; financial and corporate compliance; legal and regulatory; corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2023 annual revenues of €5.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 21,400 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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