Corporate clients paid for fewer hours and spent less overall during the first nine months of 2013 than they did a year ago. During that period, Am Law Second Hundred firms picked up market share. And, despite the drop in demand, law firms were able to once again increase their billable rates.
Those are the headlines from the latest LegalView Legal Market Index. The Index is based on the purchases of legal services by 70 large corporate clients spread across eight industry groups ranging from financial services to health care to industrials to technology. The LegalView 70 consists of big companies: 21 are in the Fortune 500; another 12 belong to the Fortune 1000. These are clients that hire a lot of firms: In each quarter these companies used 181 to 183 of the Am Law 200 firms and more than 3,000 others. These 70 clients spent $2.46 billion last year on law firm services, with $1.3 billion of that going to the Am Law 200 firms. TyMetrix, the giant electronic billing clearinghouse and data analytics and advisory company, produces the Index.
