Valeo 2025-2026 Early Indicators Report on Law Firm Hourly Rate Trends, Benchmarks, and Firmwide Pricing Changes

AmLaw 200 Rate Increases Highest Ever

Using state of the art software, AI and expert legal research, the Valeo Legal Pricing Platform identifies, parses and uploads hourly rates that are publicly disclosed, from over 100 sources, of Attorneys and Support Staff at over 3,000 law firms representing over 20,000 companies in 64 countries with rates denominated in 17 currencies. Secondary public records research is performed to complete detailed engagement profiles of the Attorneys and companies involved.

Through this process the Platform is able to provide actionable and monetizable data to our client community - large law firms, corporations and consulting firms to make:

• Direct comparisons between Attorneys and firms (as opposed to general averages of a collection of various firms' rates as found in surveys, e-billing services or online auction sites) and
• Important pricing and strategy decisions enterprise wide or engagement-by-engagement for litigation, transactional, advisory and regulatory matters.

In the Valeo Legal Pricing Platform, all hourly rates, hours and fees for each individual Attorney are cited as to the source. For example, the citation for a court filing includes Case Name, Case Number, Court, Case Filing Date, Filing Number, Filing Description, Attorney and Support Staff listed by Full Name, Client Name, Hourly Rate (Standard, Billed and Discount) of each Timekeeper, Hours Billed, Total Hours and the time period in which the work was performed. As mentioned, further secondary research is required to confirm Attorney experience levels (Graduation and Bar licensure years), Bar State (in the United States) or Bar Country (outside of the United States), Practice Area(s) and primary industry of the Client and Fortune 500 / Global 500 Rank of the Client.

Data for all Valeo Analytical Reports is downloaded from the Platform and rates are detailed as Average Billed Rates by Annual Revenue Rankings (AMLAW 10, 50, etc.), Firm, Position (Senior Partner: 25 years or more since Graduation Year, Partner: 24 years or less, Counsel, Senior Associate: 5 years or more, Associate: 4 years or less and Support Staff), Practice(s) and Rate Years. Some rates were estimated.

In order to provide this detailed level of clarity and transparency, the Platform finds rate information in

• public records in US Federal Courts: Supreme Court of the United States, Appellate Courts including the Federal Circuit, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, Tax Court and Others
• US State Courts
• publicly available budgets from Municipalities, Districts (School, Water, Environmental and Others), counties and states where attorneys were hired to perform legal work for the public entity
• registrations and legal services agreements such as SEC records and other publicly disclosed departmental or agency filings.

Since Valeo researches, reviews and analyzes only publicly available information and cites the source of the information, the United States federal and state court systems easily recognize and accept the validity and veracity of Valeo data in court. Valeo data has been used and cited in several hundred United States federal and state court cases including the Supreme Court of the United States, Federal District Courts, Appellate Courts including the Federal Circuit, Federal Bankruptcy and Adversary proceedings, US Tax Court and major State Litigation Courts. Additionally, Valeo data has been utilized in private arbitrations (AAA and JAMS) and in the United Kingdom.

Valeo 2026 Early Indicators Law Firm Hourly Rate Report

For the Valeo 2026 Early Indicators Law Firm Hourly Rate Report, the Platform identified annual 2026 firmwide hourly rate changes effective prior to January 1, 2026 and compared those rates to prior High and Low Standard and Average Billed hourly rates to determine the % increase or change in rates from 2025 to 2026. Clients have found that these firms’ rate changes are accurate barometers of rate changes for all large US law firms in terms of direction and amount, i.e., comparative hourly rate change by Position and Firm from the prior year and by how much. The changes for 2026 are greater than those for the same firms in 2025.

Prior written consent by Valeo is required to use any of this report in Court, Arbitration, Mediation or in a third-party publication or channel. Upon notification by the purchaser of this report that they intend to use up to 10 pages of it a venue outside of their firm, Valeo will provide an authentication letter. One submission per report.