About NALFA
The National Association of Legal Fee Analysis (NALFA) is a non-profit corporation. We serve as the professional governing body for the legal fee analysis profession. Our mission is to help ensure quality and reliability across the legal fee analysis profession, regardless of membership status. Our standard for analyzing and evaluating attorney fees and expenses is reasonableness. Our members observe proven methodologies and adhere to the proper standard of reasonableness when reviewing outside attorney fees and expenses.
Fact Sheet
- NALFA is an A.M. Best Recommended Expert Service Provider (2008-Present).
- NALFA has recommended qualified attorney fee experts on legal fee and billing matters ranging from $500,000-$500 million.
- Since 2008, NALFA has hosted over 45 different CLE and professional development programs on attorney fees and legal billing topics. Our CLE faculty has included 23 sitting federal judges.
- Every year, NALFA announces, “The Nation’s Top Attorney Fee Experts”.
- Every year, NALFA conducts an hourly rate survey of civil litigation in the U.S. This is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive survey or study of hourly billing rates in litigation.
- NALFA offers a Certificate in Ethical Billing & Reasonable Fees, the nation’s first and only certificate of its kind for registered guests of multiple CLE programs.
- NALFA has established Best Practices in Outside Legal Fee Analysis, a peer-review driven code of professional conduct for professionals who routinely perform outside legal fee analysis.
- NALFA’s News Blog covers legal billing and attorney fee issues from across the U.S.
- NALFA filed Amicus Briefs in Worley v. Storage USA, Pipefitters v. Oakley in California appellate courts and in the landmark ADA case, Covington v. McNeese State University in the Louisiana Supreme Court.
- NALFA has been cited or quoted by over 20 different media outlets and/or publications: The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, ALM’s American Lawyer, The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg BNA, CNBC, Thomson Reuters, Insurance Journal, Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, Daily Journal, ALM’s Daily Business Review, ALM’s National Law Journal, FindLaw.com, The Florida Bar Journal, Law 360, Politico, ALM’s Law.com, Missouri Lawyers Media, ALM’s Critical Mass, Portland Business Journal, Detroit Free Press, and ABA Journal.
- NALFA houses a body of scholarship on reasonable attorney fees including surveys, reports, articles, and studies. NALFA also recognizes the nation’s most influential scholarship on attorney fees and legal billing.
- NALFA conducts custom design hourly rate surveys for law firms and corporate legal departments. A federal judge cited a NALFA hourly rate data in his attorney fee award in the Vortens class action settlement.
NALFA press coverage includes:
- The Wall Street Journal article, “Rock-Star Law Firms Are Billing Up to $2,000 per Hour, Clients Are Indignant” by Erin Mulvaney (10/04/24)
- The American Bar Association (ABA) Journal article, “This City Has The Highest Rates for Litigators” by Amanda Robert (07/15/24)
- National Law Journal article, “DC Litigators Outpaced All Other Cities on Billing Rates in 2023” by Abigail Adcox (07/12/24)
- Law.com article, “Where Miami Ranks in State Litigators Charge Highest Attorney Fee Rates” by Michael A. Mora (02/02/24)
- Law 360 article, “Chancery’s Fee Ruling in Dell is on the Money, Experts Say” by Jeff Montgomery (08/03/23)
- Law 360 article, “Class Benefits Becoming Larger Factor for Fees, Experts Say” by Lauraann Wood (06/29/23)
- Law 360 article, “Excessive Attys’ Fee Bids Can Backfire, Judges Say” by Bonnie Eslinger (10/25/18)
- Law 360 article, “Labaton Bid to DQ Judge in $75M Fee Fight a Risky Move” by Chris Villani (08/02/18)
- NALFA was also featured in an ALM article, “Spoiler Alert: Most of South Florida’s Top Law Firm Billers Are Men”.
- Our hourly rate survey results were cited by ALM’s Critical Mass in,“Coronavirus Cancels MDL Program at Duke Law, Where Professor’s Death Has Shocked the Mass Torts Bar. A Survey Probes Hourly Rates in Class Actions, On Both Sides,”.
- NALFA and NALFA member provided an historic context to Quinn Emanuel’s $184M fee request in Portland Business Journal’s news article, “Former Portland Health Insurer’s Law Firm Asks for $184M in Legal Fees”.