News Flash: Law Firm Rates Going Up!

The National Law Journal covers this breaking news. Actually, man bites dog may be more newsworthy.

This will take a day for me to chew on and digest.

Here’s one aspect that immediately caught my (somewhat) jaundiced eye:

The increase is partly due to inflation and supply and demand, said Joseph Altonji of the management consulting firm Hildebrandt International.

“It’s the demand for a really good lawyer, and it costs to hire really good people,” he said. “Since these costs are going up, the firms have to pass that cost on.” And for sophisticated transactions, clients are willing to pay, Altonji said.

(Excuse me while I get up off the floor…)

A preview: this trend is not really about inflation, or the cost of labor. And it’s generally not about deal work, which is often priced on a different scale and has a more direct link to value.

Until tomorrow, here’s a view into a typical management committee meeting when the subject of billing rates is on the agenda: