Largest Law Firms Grab a Sizable Majority of IP Litigation Work

Large Law Wields Its Weight Over IP Litigation Matters LexisNexis CounselLink Trends Report - 2014 Year-End Results 61% When it comes to IP litigation, the biggest firms are getting a bigger share. The largest firms-those with 750 or more attorneys- have grown their share of IP litigation work to 61% over the past three years. 12.6% 13.3% 750+ 501-750 201-500 Companies spent $3 billion on IP Litigation in 2014 A larger share of a lucrative market is a win for these large firms. IP litigation is one of the fastest-growing practices in the legal market*. IP litigation spending is on the rise for many corporations pursuing patent, trademark and intellectual property lawsuits, many of which are in the pharmaceutical and technology industries. *BTI Consulting Group, Litigation Outlook Report, 2014 Big Law is Controlling Its Costs for IP Litigation Largest firms are keeping median partner billing rates low. In the Largest 50 firms (750+), the median partner rate change since 2011 is a 0.4% decrease. In the same time frame, the median change for the Large Enough firms (201-500) was a 5.8% increase. 5.8% $656 $651 750+ 201-500 firms firms $622 0.4% $560 The Big Firms Have a Resource Advantage The largest law firms have the benefit of a larger poolof partner resources to leverage, which they can use to their and their clients' advantage to help reduce costs. They can staff cases with junior partners and other attorneys. Half of all IP litigation matters at these firms have less than 1% of partner time billed to them. "Large Enough" firms (201 to 500) apply more partner hours to these cases. For "Large Enough" firms, over half of all IP litigation matters have between 20 and 60% partner time billed to them. Alternative fee arrangements (AFAS) are rare in IP litigation 11% TOTAL 98% IP 2% Across all practice areas, AFA usage accounts for billed at 11% of total billings, compared to only 2% of IP litigation cases. In practice areas, like IP litigation, where billing is done by hourly rate versus AFAS, firms are finding it to be even more important to keep rates down. hourly rate Find out more about AFA usage, partner rates and more in the LexisNexis CounselLink® Trends Report, 4th Edition. Get the full report > www.CounselLink.com LexisNexis LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst Logo areregistered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. © 2015 LexisNexis. This infographic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. AFAS BIE