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Custom Hourly Rate Survey Data

Compare & Prove Litigation Rates with Custom Survey Data

Hourly rates are not attorney fees.  They are, however, a major factor in calculating attorney fees.  In fact, hourly rates are one of the most important variables in determining attorney fee awards in court.  They represent  half of the lodestar equation.  As such, establishing the lodestar or prevailing market rate is paramount for any claim for attorney fees.  But one litigator’s individual hourly billing rate (i.e. a single discrete numerical value) is not the same as the prevailing market rate (i.e. an aggregated amount of data).

Overview
NALFA conducts specialized or custom  design hourly rate urveys for clients such as law firms and corporate legal departments.  These customized surveys provide our clients with current and accurate data on prevailing market hourly rates within a given geography and litigation practice area.  Indeed, our custom survey data has been used by both fee-seeking and fee-challenging litigators in state and federal courts.  Our custom survey data can also be used for law firm billing rate comparisons.

Hourly Rate Factors

NALFA has identified 5 factors that help determine prevailing market hourly rates.  These variables include:

  • City / Geography (e.g. Oklahoma City Rates v. New York City Rates)
  • Years in Practice / Seniority (e.g. 3rd Year Associate Rates v. 12th Year Partner Rates)
  • Complexity of Case  / Litigation Practice Area (e.g. Patent Litigation Rates v. Antitrust Litigation Rates)
  • Representing Party (e.g. Defense Rates v. Plaintiffs’ Rates)
  • Law Firm Size (e.g. Small Law Office Rates v. Large Law Firm Rates)

These 5 factors can have significant impact on billing rates in litigation.  These variables can vary significantly or not at all.  But they should be considered before conducting any survey on hourly rates.

Survey Proposal

Each survey is custom tailored to meet the needs of the client, often for a litigation specific-case purpose.  We work directly with client on all aspects of the hourly rate survey.  Once we understand the client’s rate data needs, we prepare a survey proposal.  Our proposal will include a step-by-step guide to the hourly rate survey process.  Our flat fee depends on the size and scope of the survey.  All client information to kept in strict confidence.

Email Database

At NALFA, we have build the digital operations and network infrastructure to conduct large-scale, regional or local billing rate surveys.  Our custom surveys are conducted via electronic mail.  We maintain a proprietary email database of over 625,000 attorneys from across the U.S.  Since our founding in 2008, we’ve been building and curating these contact lists.  They include a diversity of law firm sizes.  Our email database contains litigators of all types — both defense and plaintiffs’ counsel, from big law firms to solo shops, from big cities to small towns, and at all levels of litigation experience.  Our contact lists can be sorted and organized by city, practice area, position or title, and law firm size.

Survey Process & Methodology

Generally, our hourly rate surveys pass through the following stages:

  • Survey Questions / Survey Design & Format
  • Identify Survey Population
  • Launch Email Survey Campaign
  • Achieve Representative Sample Size
  • Sort Data / Data Presentation
  • Report Findings / Declaration

The client has the ultimate authority over the survey questions and survey design.  Good survey design leads to good survey data.  NALFA begins the survey process by identifying the correct survey population to target.  Once the email database has been carefully calibrated to the targeted audience, the email survey campaign can begin.

Throughout the survey campaign we closely monitor the open and participation rates.  We track the survey totals in real-time.  The client is kept update on the survey’s progress.  The email campaign is conducted over several days or weeks.  Once we have reached a more than sufficient overall sample size and a representative sample size for each category or variable, we conclude the survey.

Work Product: Survey Data Presentation & Declaration

At the conclusion of the survey, we sort and organize the data into charts and graphs.  Our data presentation includes a detailed narrative of the survey process and methodology.    The survey data will be presented in charts and graphs.  The survey report includes a detailed narrative of the survey process and methodology.  Throughout the entire survey process, NALFA respects the privacy of our survey participants and will never disclose the names of individuals or law firms.  If necessary, NALFA writes and signs a declaration to be filed in a court of law.