We just went through our annual rate review and I'm trying to benchmark against the market. Curious what others are seeing, particularly in mid-size regional firms.
For context: I'm at a 40-attorney firm in the Southeast doing commercial litigation. We pushed associate rates up 8% this year and partner rates around 6%, which felt aggressive but clients didn't push back as hard as I expected.
I know BigLaw is a different universe but even secondary market rates seem to be rising faster than inflation. Anyone in transactional practices seeing different patterns? I'd expect M&A and real estate to be softer given deal volume, but maybe not.
Also — are you doing fixed-fee arrangements for anything? We've been experimenting with flat fees for standard employment agreements and it's been popular with small business clients.