Billing surveys allow attorneys to evaluate how their billing practices compare to other law firms. The following are the billing surveys available at Jenkins.
Law review and journal articles may give further insight on billing. Jenkins members can use HeinOnline and LegalTrac to search for articles.
NLJ Billing Report ALM
Library has 2017 Billing Report.
National Law Journal ALM
Library has vol. 3, no. 17 (1981) - present. Also available on Micro. The Billing Survey is published once a year, usually in December. Sometimes it is a separate pull-out, sometimes an individual article, and sometimes a series of articles comprising their own section.
Jenkins librarians have found billing surveys in the NLJ on the following dates:
Per the 2015 billing survey: The National Law Journal "ask[s] respondents to its annual survey of the nation's largest law firms (the NLJ 350) to provide a range of hourly billing rates for partners and associates." The billing survey as available in the NLJ lists the 50 firms that charged the highest average hourly rates for partners; the average, high, and low rates for partners; and the average, high, and low rates for associates.
Billing information may be available in other surveys available for purchase from ALM.
Survey of Law Firm Economics ALM
Library has 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2019. This publication is on Jenkins' occasional purchasing schedule. To purchase other available years, see the ALM website.
See the "Hourly Rates" and "Billable Hours" tabs. Data are organized by multiple categories, including firm size, region, gender, and specialty. Some data may be available by state. City and county data not available. Some data also reproduced in Pa Law: The State of the Profession (see "National Statistics" chart).
LexisNexis Counsel Benchmarking
Data derived from invoices from nearly 8,000 law firms. Data available includes law firm size, location, matter type, and timekeeper level. Counsel Benchmarking is an additional product that can be added to your Lexis Advance account. Counsel Benchmarking is not available on the Jenkins Lexis computers and librarians at Jenkins cannot create a report using Counsel Benchmarking. Contact LexisNexis for more information.