2022 Benchmark Report Part 2: How Lawyers Get Paid

Introduction

One of the top business struggles lawyers face is getting paid. Law firm profitability depends on receiving prompt payment from clients, and when clients fail to pay their legal bills, it can be incredibly frustrating. After working hard on their behalf, you expect to be compensated for your efforts. However, if your firm doesn’t provide clients with multiple payment options, your firm is likely struggling to collect the legal fees owed.

Clients avoid paying legal bills for any number of reasons. Some may not have sufficient funds, and other times they may require more payment flexibility or a more convenient way to render payment. Today’s legal clients expect to have many payment options available, and if your firm doesn’t provide them with a choice, they will likely have difficulty paying legal bills. That’s why offering your clients with multiple payment options, including credit cards, is one of the keys to your firm’s financial success.

This report shows, when the technology used by your firm provides clients with payment convenience and flexibility, lawyers in your firm can spend time focusing on representing clients and less time trying to collect outstanding legal fees. The result is increased profitability.

In Part 1, we analyze anonymized data obtained from MyCase to provide actionable business insights, including:

• How customers make the most of our software.

• Which features are most beneficial for different law firms.

• How the tools built into MyCase increase efficiency and profitability for our customers.

The Report consists of a 3-part series, with each section devoted to one of the following categories of data:

1. Productivity

2. Financial

3. Lead generation

In Part 1, we analyzed data to determine how work gets done in firms and by whom. In this section, Part 2, we focus on insights from financial data. Finally, in Part 3, we’ll look at lead generation data.

For this section of the report, we pulled financial data related to law firm revenues during the pandemic, collection rates, payment timeframes, and practice area hourly rates by geographical region. This data provides actionable information that lawyers can use to set competitive rates, ensure higher collection rates, and increase profitability.

Want all the statistics? Download the full report