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NQ Salary Trends - June 2025
Good round up of recent NQ salary increases in this FT article (paywall) I don't really share in the "this is terrible, in my day NQs...
James Markham
2 min read


Totum Commercial Finance Event 5 June 2025
Couple of reflections on last week's event with law firm Commercial Finance folk, very kindly hosted by Dee Deol MSc  and Totum...
James Markham
2 min read


A Case Study in Law Firm Gross Margin and Lockup
Roll On Friday  broke the news on DWF  putting 100 roles at risk of redundancy a couple of weeks ago and some of the commentary since...
James Markham
2 min read


Golf Clubs and GenAI
Interesting report coming out of Bucerius Law School  and Simon-Kucher  looking at the impact of GenAI on law firm business models last...
James Markham
2 min read


Effective Rates in Smaller Law Firms
One of the questions left open in The Law Society 's Financial Management Survey is that of effective rates, or price achieved by...
James Markham
2 min read


The Law Society's Financial Benchmarking Survey 2025
Reading through The Law Society 's Financial Benchmarking Survey from last week, there are a few points that stand out in the core legal...
James Markham
2 min read


Price go up, volume go down - some nuance
Supply and demand curves are a cornerstone of Economics 101 classes and they're typically introduced as a simple straight line (as shown...
James Markham
6 min read


Does GenAI necessitate the end of the billable hour?
Betteridge suggests no... To take a worked example - if a lawyer works 20 hours on a matter and charges £500 an hour, then they bill the...
James Markham
2 min read


A Simple(ish) Pricing Model for Law Firms
Elsewhere I've advocated for pricing a given piece of legal work in three distinct ways, with reference to: The cost of delivering said...
James Markham
4 min read


How can firms afford a 12.5% pay rise?
I didn't have a 12.5% increase in London NQ salaries from Norton Rose Fulbright  on my bingo card, but both The Lawyer and Legal Cheek...
James Markham
2 min read


The Case for Commercial Acumen Training in Law Firms
It’s no secret that client expectations are shifting, and law firms are feeling the squeeze from compounding cost inflation in their...
James Markham
3 min read


Value Based Pricing = Good (?)
Earlier this week I posted about the billable hour maybe not being all that bad, when viewed in the context of the other factors that...
James Markham
2 min read


Billable Hour = Bad (?)
Couple of posts this week testing the "billable hour = bad / value based pricing = good" narrative I'll say up front that my view is...
James Markham
2 min read


Legal MBA x Fringe Legal Podcast
Darren and I were delighted to kick off the 2025 season on Fringe Legal podcast discussing all things Legal MBA and Legal Tech. Host Ab...
James Markham
1 min read


How to increase effective rates when current clients won't budge
Within my earlier post this week on the latest data release from the ONS on Legal Services prices I referenced BigHand 's 2025 Law Firm...
James Markham
2 min read


UK Law Firm Pricing Briefing - January 2025
Background The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces a quarterly Services Producer Price Index (SPPI). This contains useful...
James Markham
5 min read


Maximising Law Firm Profits: Insights from James Markham
An impromptu chat with David Woolstencroft , of People in Legal , when we were both at LegalGeek  last year, in which we cantered through...
James Markham
1 min read


Should firms allocate overheads to individual clients or matters?
This is not the same question as 'could' firms allocate overheads - for most firms that record time, the answer here is yes But with...
James Markham
2 min read


Realisation Waterfall
I made passing reference to a looking at realisation rates as a waterfall in a comment last week Thought it worth expanding on The table...
James Markham
1 min read


Incentives can matter more than process
Last week I posted an approach to improving law firm lockup, using a Lean process improvement methodology I thought it worth highlighting...
James Markham
2 min read
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