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Big-Picture Legal Trends in Florida

Until around 2007, some law firms had been able to stay financially healthy by boosting their hourly rates by 7% to 8% a year. In a 2010 interview, Cesar Alvarez, executive chairman of Greenberg Traurig, said the ability to charge higher rates masked structural problems in business operations that often were otherwise inefficient. He describes the rate increases as “one cylinder working, at extra capacity, but the other five cylinders in the law firm engine were not working.”

In recent years, firms have had to focus on the other “cylinders” in their business, which continues to be ruled by the following dynamics:

» The recession killed most firms’ ability to keep raising rates and for most, revenue remains pinched. Jorge Espinosa left a large law firm and, with William Trueba, formed Miami-based Espinosa Trueba in 2008, just as the economy was collapsing.

“It was a terrifying experience,” Espinosa says. He and other lawyers say that clients in distress would ask for rate cuts or threaten to take their business elsewhere. Ultimately, Espinosa’s firm succeeded by avoiding the pressure to cut rates but chose to freeze rates.

Manuel Garcia-Linares, managing shareholder of Miami-based Richman Greer, says his firm also froze rates during the depth of the recession and was only able to raise them for the first time since the recession last year.

» Revenues also have suffered because many corporate clients are insisting on discounts of 5% to 15% on the annual retainers they pay their outside law firms. Instead of being able to collect 94 or 95 cents on every dollar they bill, Alvarez says some firms are finding they can only expect about 87 cents.

» Cultural changes have further constricted revenue at many firms. Some younger lawyers simply choose to work less, spending time with their families instead of grinding out more billable hours. Leverage — the ratio of associates’ hours to those worked by partners — has decreased, making it harder to maintain compensation levels for the partners.

» Firms continue to look for ways to cut overhead, but most of the low-hanging fruit has been harvested. The internet age has long made law libraries at many firms a thing of the past, enabling firms to cut their need for office space. At most firms, support staffs have shrunk and are tightly monitored. Bill Perry, CEO and managing shareholder of Gunster in West Palm Beach, says there should be no more than one administrator or back office staffer for every “time keeper” — an attorneys or paralegal. Some firms get that ratio below 1:1, he says.

And while clients may still find spacious, well-appointed greeting areas and conference rooms, lawyers’ offices themselves have gotten smaller, enabling more savings on rent. Those efficiencies, estimates one attorney, amount to less than 20% of the cuts needed to become truly efficient.

» More “alternative fee arrangements” are emerging between firms and corporate clients — agreed-upon lump sums for a body of work, or essentially, payment on anything other than an hourly basis. Hourly billing won’t disappear, but over time it’s becoming less dominant. Big firms with offices in more than one city, meanwhile, can use “blended rates” — combining the hourly rates from an attorney in a higher-cost city like New York with those from a lower-cost city like Orlando, for example, to hold down costs for clients.

» Firms must use technology to hold down the cost of legal services, but technology imposes costs [“Tech and the Law”]. At Miami-based Richman Greer, where some lawyers once had their own secretaries, the ratio is now one secretary for every three lawyers. The firm also is “spending more money on technology so we can be more efficient,” says Manuel Garcia-Linares, managing shareholder. “I’m trying to get rid of paper.”

Clients also expect firms to be technologically up to date, he says. “Our clients want us to have as cutting edge as possible.”

» Salaries for associates remain low. Garcia-Linares at Richman Greer and past president of the Florida Association of Managing Partners, says the financial pressure imposed on law firms by the recession has led to associate salaries dropping from “astronomically high” levels during the boom. He says he expects salaries for young lawyers and those coming out of law school will remain low for many years.

With the exception of managing partners, salaries for Florida lawyers fell sharply from their 2008-09 peak, reflecting the economic realties of the state as the recession moved into a limp recovery. Associate lawyers had the largest percentage decline.

Today, a managing partners’ job, says Alvarez, is to not only create value for clients, but also “deliver that for less but keep the margins the same so we can attract the same quality of lawyers. Whoever gets it right will be the survivors.”

Legal Salaries, median income

Category 2005 2007 2009 2011
Managing partner $175,000 $200,000 $220,000 $222,500
Partner/shareholder 170,000 175,000 200,000 160,000
Corporate counsel 100,000 110,000 125,000 119,000
Sole practitioner 95,000 100,000 100,000 90,000
Federal gov't attorney 100,000 100,000 84,000 78,000
Associate attorney 77,000 80,000 85,000 75,000
Local gov't attorney 90,000 91,000 75,000 74,600
State gov't attorney 60,000 65,000 60,000 56,000

Note: Annual income before taxes
Source: Florida Bar 2011 Membership Opinion Survey