Editor's note: This is the second installment in a series of articles looking into Big Law firms' movement to, and influence on, developing markets. Read the first installment here.

Big Law firms are increasingly taking steps to "follow the money" into emerging markets, but the money doesn't always follow right back — at least not in the form of billing rates and salaries. Average hourly billing rates for partners and associates have ebbed and flowed in some of the markets with the largest relative increases in NLJ 500 lawyers over the last few years, according to the most recent legal billing data from Wolters Kluwer.