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Law Firm Leaders Struggle With Setting Firmwide Rates

By Gina Passarella
December 31, 2014

The collective weight of the new year is upon law firm managing partners, with the season being that of collections, partner compensation and rate-setting. And the latter has proven a bit vexing for firm leaders as they grapple with setting rates in an era where firms span multiple markets and practice concentrations, clients aren't willing to pay the published rates and alternative fee deals are a growing part of firm revenue.

As a result, firms are moving away from a uniformly applied rate structure across the firm to a specialized approach that may result in stark differences in rates charged across offices, practices and attorney level.

“I think rates are more of an art than a science and it's becoming more and more that way as the years go on,” Cozen O'Connor CEO Michael Heller said. “It's much harder and it requires a much more in-depth analysis to modify rates now than it used to.” For Heller, setting rates has become a customized approach that allows for some markets or practices to make more aggressive changes than others.

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