CT TyMetrix and The Corporate Executive Board Provide the Industry's First True Look at Legal Billing Rates and Trends

HARTFORD, Conn., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- CT TyMetrix, the premier provider of Web-based legal operations management solutions for corporate law departments and claims organizations, today announced the general availability of the Real Rate Report™, an analysis of the largest dataset of legal invoice data in the world.  The report, released jointly by CT TyMetrix and the Legal and Compliance practice at The Corporate Executive Board (NYSE: EXBD), is the industry's first look at real, objective, invoice data to understand and quantify what is driving the billable hour and to help the buyers and sellers of legal services make better-informed business decisions.  CT TyMetrix is a part of Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services.

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The Real Rate Report Identifies the Five Most Important Factors Driving the Billable Hour

• Lawyer location, law firm size, experience level, partner status and key practice area are the top factors impacting the legal billing rate today.
• CT TyMetrix and The Corporate Executive Board developed a statistical model to quantify the impact of these factors on lawyer rates.
• The model shows that rates are determined much more by law firm size and location of a lawyer, than by the lawyer's experience or practice area.  
• To learn more about this statistical model and the drivers behind lawyer rates visit:  http://realratereport.com/about.php.

The Real Rate Report Found a Wide Variation of Rates Across Geographies

• Large, tier-one markets have seen smaller rate increases than some other markets—specifically in southern cities.  
• As corporations continue to shift their business operations to less expensive metropolitan areas, particularly in the south, supporting business services like legal services are seeing some increased demand, and an associated increase in pricing power.
• Smaller metropolitan areas like Denver, St. Louis and Raleigh, N.C. are still relatively inexpensive compared to large markets like New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago.

The Real Rate Report Determined a Larger Increase in Associate Rates vs. Partner Rates

• Between 2007 and 2009, associates had the largest percentage increase in hourly rates – 16.6 percent compared to 8.6 percent by partners.
• Associates with fewer than three years of experience had the highest percentage increase of 17.9 percent.

The Real Rate Report includes analysis of $4.1 billion in invoices from more than 3,500 law firms, more than 90,000 individual billers and 17.6 million invoice items from 2007 to 2009.  While other reports on legal billing trends have been released, they were largely based on survey information, which is typically skewed by the inaccuracy of respondent estimates and the self-selecting nature of survey respondents as a whole.  The Real Rate Report is not a survey, but rather an analysis of the largest dataset of e-billing information available.  All findings are based on un-manipulated, factual data of real rate information.  The information used for the report is a subset of the detailed invoice data from CT TyMetrix clients who agreed to have their data cleansed of identifying information and included in the analysis database.  The data contains task, activity and matter-type detail as represented on the actual invoices submitted and approved by clients.  Using invoice data also gives an unprecedented view into the discounted and negotiated rates becoming so prevalent in the legal market.

"The Real Rate Report is a ground-breaking resource for all law firms and corporate law departments looking for pricing data to build aligned, mutually beneficial partnering models," said John Weber, general manager, CT TyMetrix.  "We are proud of this report, as well as the other CT TyMetrix's innovations that enable law firms and law departments to better to optimize their legal operations."

"The Real Rate Report responds to companies' need for actual legal cost information to assist in planning, budgeting and negotiation with their law firms," said Steven Williams, managing director, Corporate Executive Board.  "The report is a great addition to the broader set of services we provide to CEB's more than 1,000 client legal departments to help them reduce legal costs and drive corporate performance."

Visit http://www.realratereport.com or http://www.cttymetrix.com to order the Real Rate Report.  

About CT TyMetrix

CT TyMetrix is the market leader in Web-based legal management solutions for corporate law departments and claims organizations.  It provides clients with quality legal management software – including e-billing, matter management and performance metrics – and the expertise required to reduce costs, improve results and gain the insight required to meet their strategic objectives.  CT TyMetrix is based in Hartford, Conn., with business operations in Chicago and London.  For more information, please visit www.cttymetrix.com or www.cttymetrix.co.uk.

About Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services

Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services is a business of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with annual revenues (2009) of euro 3.4 billion ($4.8 billion) and approximately 19,300 people worldwide.  Visit www.wolterskluwer.com.

SOURCE CT TyMetrix