Sky Analytics Conducts Groundbreaking Study.
We thank our friends at NALFA for a recent post on a groundbreaking study which we now share with you.
Sky Analytics, a provider of legal spend management software for corporate legal departments, recently issued a gender study based on actual billings from law firms, available for reading in a July 15, 2014 post at NALFA’s Attorney’s Fees blog website—with the study analyzing law firm invoices collected by Sky Analytics from corporate legal departments with annual legal spend ranging from $1 million to $1 billion. The data set spans over $3.4 billion in legal spend across over 40,000 attorneys and timekeepers and over 3,000 law firms in the U.S., including 73 of the AmLaw 100 firms.
Key findings of the study include:
1. Female partners earn an average 10% lower billable rate versus their male counterparts. This pay inequality is especially pronounced in the Mountain and South Central regions of the U.S. where rate disparity rises to 16% and 20% respectively.
2. Women are billed at significantly lower rates per hour than men, no matter what size of firm. The average female partner’s hourly rate is $47 less per hour or 10% less than her male colleague’s ($426 vs. $473) at top tier firms. The difference is even more significant at smaller firms where female partners are billed at $64 less per hour or 12% less than males at ($498 vs. $562).
3. Virtually no women are billed at over $1,000 per hour compared to 2% of men in top tier firms. While 6% of all male lawyers bill over $800, only 2% of female lawyers bill over $800. Furthermore, 51% of men in top tier firms charge over $500 per hour, compared to 31% of women in the same tier.
4. The differences in pay start early. At top tier firms, the average hourly rate of a female associate is $27 less per hour than her male colleague’s ($377 vs. $404). At smaller firms, 30% of women charge less than $150 per hour compared to 22% of men.
5. Female partners bill 24 minutes per day more than male partners. Male and female associates bill about the same number of hours per day, while female paralegals bill 121 minutes (or 22%) less than male paralegals.