CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY'S FEES

Interesting Survey Results: NALFA Has Issued Its 2020 Litigation Hourly Survey And Report

It Has Detailed Breakdown Of Hourly Rates In 16 Large U.S. Cities, Suburbs Of Those Cities, And Other Cities Not In The 16 Largest City Areas.

            We thank Terry Jesse, Executive Director of the National Association of Legal Fee Analysis (NALFA), for bringing to our attention that NALFA issued its 2020 Litigation Hourly Survey and Report on July 21, 2021.  NALFA conducted an email survey and mined 29,595 data points from 4,106 participants with the help of some of its members/well-known fee experts.  The hourly rate data focused on these categories:  location/venue; years in litigation practice; practice area (including hourly rates for routine versus complex litigation); and law practice size.  The survey took place between August 7 – December 18, 2020.  The hourly rate data was generated for 16 large cities, suburbs of those 16 cities, and cities outside of the 16 large cities.  Here are the sixteen cities involved in this survey, which provides instructive data for the four categories described above:  D.C.; Dallas; San Francisco; New York City; Seattle; Tampa; Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami; Boston; Denver; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Atlanta; Houston; and San Diego.  Given that these surveys are frequently used in fee proceedings, more data like this report is always welcomed by fee experts/analysts. 

In The News . . . . 2018 Martindale Attorney Compensation Report Distills Survey Results For U.S. Solo Practitioners And Small Firms In 2017

$198,000 Was The Mean Annual Compensation, And Most Attorneys Would Have Chosen A Law Career Again.

            The Martindale Legal Marketing Network, in 2018, has initiated its first annual Attorney Compensation Report which involved a survey of more than 7,800 U.S. attorneys across two dozen practice areas—concentrating on 6,902 full-time practitioners who were either solo practitioners or attorneys practicing in small law firms. The results were for 2017.

            With respect to annual compensation, the average annual full-time compensation on a mean basis was $198,000 and $140,000 on a median basis. Intellectual property attorneys did the best at $240,000 while immigration attorneys earned the least with an average of $131,000. However, compensation did increase in 2017 for 45% of the responding attorneys.

            As far as geography, Western region attorneys (California, Hawaii, and Alaska) earning the most, followed by the South Central (Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas).

            Most attorney compensation was provided through hourly billable services.

            Time with clients is diminishing, with less than 20 hours weekly being devoted to meeting with clients or representing them in court/other judicial bodies.

            Attorneys valued client relationships the most.

            76% of surveyed attorneys would choose to the practice in the same areas of the law, and 73% said they would choose a law career again.

Class Actions: Carlton Fields’ Seventh Annual Class Action Survey Of More Than 400 General Counsel/Legal Officers Shows Increased Class Action Litigation Defense Spending By Responding U.S. Companies

Study Also Surveyed Most Prevalent Types Of Class Actions, Risk Evaluation Factors, Settlement Percentages, And Use Of Class Action Waiver Arbitration Clauses.

                Carlton Fields has published its seventh annual Class Action Survey, which surveyed more than 400 general counsel and chief legal officers in U.S. companies about class action trends for the 2017 year. Its findings are edifying in nature.

                From a high-level executive perspective, class action defense spending has been rising steadily in the last 3 years, reaching its highest level (in 2017) since 2010. In 2017, class action spending went up about 5% from the previous year, namely, 53.8% in 2016 to 59% in 2017, as measured by the percentage of companies managing class action cases out of the total surveyed population. The surveyed companies projected spending $2.24 billion defending themselves in class actions, which was 11.4% of all litigation spending (which total spending came to $19.7 billion for the companies).

                Labor and employment matters were the most common type (24.7% of matters and 21.6% of spending), consumer fraud clocked in at #2 (18.2% of matters and 18.9% of spending), while products liability and antitrust came in respectively at #3 and #4. These four categories accounted for 2/3rds of all the class actions. Interestingly enough, despite the publicity generated with respect to data privacy cases, fewer than 25% of the business population surveyed have faced class actions in this area.

                For purposes of evaluating the risks presented by class actions, exposure not surprisingly was the prime factor considered in the evaluation calculus.

                Class action settlement rates for 2017 increased from 62.5% in the previous year to 70.8%, with 37.5% settling after the class certification stage of the litigation.

                Also, 37.2% of responding companies used class action waivers in arbitration agreements for 2017, up from 30.2% in 2016. Around a third of the companies believe that favorable changes were coming in the class action area based on anticipated changes to the U.S. Supreme Court constituency.