The old adage that real estate is all about location, location, location may also apply to hourly rates in litigation.  NALFA recently released the results from its annual hourly rate survey of civil litigation in the U.S.  The results, published in The 2021 Litigation Hourly Rate Survey & Report, contains billing rate data on the factors that correlate to hourly rates in litigation: geography, years of litigation experience, complexity of case, and litigation practice size.

This empirical survey and report provides macro and micro data of defense and plaintiffs’ rates in regular and complex litigation, at various litigation experience levels, from large law firms to solo shops, and in the nation’s largest markets.  This is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive survey or study on hourly billing rates in litigation.

Thousands of litigators, defense and plaintiffs’ counsel, from across the U.S. participated in this hourly rate survey.  For the second year in a row, the nation’s top billing rate city is Washington, DC.  When we aggregate all the responses from Washington, DC, 18 percent of the total responses fall within Tier 4 rates ($901-Over $1100), the highest percentage of the 19 cities in the billing rate survey.