The report uses legal invoice data to provide law firm rate benchmarks and enable more informed outsourcing decisions

According to a new report from Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, the average law firm rates for partner, associate and paralegal timekeepers continued to increase this year. The 2022 Real Rate Report utilizes the more than $155 billion in legal invoice data contained within ELM Solutions’ LegalVIEW database to provide benchmarks of law firm rates and help corporate legal departments make informed investment and resourcing decisions for their organization.

All of the data featured is sourced directly from corporations’ and law firms’ e-billing and time management solutions, with lawyer and paralegal rate data filtered by practice and sub-practice areas, metropolitan areas, and matter types. On a macro level, findings show that mean timekeeper rates have continued to gradually increase, with average partner rates growing from $705 in 2020 to $738 in 2021, before rising once again to $749 in 2022. Associate rates followed a similar trajectory, beginning with an average of $503 in 2020, climbing to $541 in 2021 and bubbling slightly to $546 in 2022.

In addition to the 2022 Real Rate Report – which is now available for purchase – ELM Solutions’ LegalVIEW database also empowers an ongoing series of LegalVIEW Insights blogs, webinars, and other content that examines legal spend patterns inside corporate law departments. The fifth and most recent LegalVIEW Insights report found that corporate law department provider counts had yet to recover post pandemic. Previous studies have also explored topics such as trends in vendor mix, statistical differences in law firm staffing ratios, and the effect of very large legal matters on outside costs.

ELM Solutions, part of Wolters Kluwer GRC, is the market-leading global provider of enterprise legal spend and matter management, contract lifecycle management and legal analytics solutions. The company provides a comprehensive suite of tools that address the growing needs of corporate legal operations departments to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. Corporate legal and insurance claims departments trust its innovative technology and end-to-end customer experience to drive world-class business outcomes. The other legal solutions business of Wolters Kluwer GRC is CT Corporation. The division’s banking and regulatory compliance businesses are Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions and Wolters Kluwer Finance, Risk & Regulatory Reporting.

Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions was named a leader in both the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Legal Spend Management 2020 Vendor Assessment and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Matter Management 2020 Vendor Assessment. The company’s award-winning products include Passport®, one of the highest rated ELM solutions in the latest Hyperion MarketView™ Legal Market Intelligence Report and TyMetrix® 360°, the industry’s leading SaaS-based e-billing and matter management solution. CLM Matrix, meanwhile, was named a “strong performer” in The Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management For All Contracts, Q1 2021 report. ELM Solutions’ LegalVIEW® portfolio of legal analytics solutions is based upon the industry’s largest and most comprehensive legal spend database, with more than $155 billion in invoices.

About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance

Governance, Risk & Compliance is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to help ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance.

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2021 annual revenues of €4.8 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,800 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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