For the third year in a row, law firms showed restraint with hourly rate increases, inching up at a rate only slightly higher than inflation in many cases, according to The National Law Journal‘s annual billing survey.
The average firmwide billing rate, which combines partner and associate rates, increased by 4.4 percent during 2011. That followed on the heels of a 2.7 percent increase in 2010 and a 2.5 percent increase in 2009 — all of which paled in comparison to the go-go, prerecession days when firms could charge between 6 and 8 percent more each year.
