The Centre for Policy Studies reports today that top London lawyers are expensive. It says that "those seeking to comply with UK legal procedure are forced to pay extremely high costs to do so".
It might well have said that those who chose to shop on Bond Street are forced to pay more, or that housing in London is a touch pricey.
The UK legal market is diverse, with corporate law firms to meet all budgets. A global corporate is likely to want peace of mind and be prepared to pay for it.
A smaller business, such as mine, will find a lawyer to suit a more modest budget.
That doesn't mean that more transparency in fees and more efficient ways to bill clients are not needed - and this is at the front of mind for many marketing and BD teams - but when a business needs urgent advice , discussion on fees tends to become irrelevant.
The cost of hiring a top London lawyer has risen to more than 1,000 pounds ($1,445) an hour, meaning only major companies can afford the biggest law firms, according to a research group. The average hourly fee charged by partners in the city’s biggest and most profitable firms in 2015 was 850 pounds, and peaked this year at a record 1,100 pounds, or 18 pounds per minute, according to the report produced by the Centre for Policy Studies, a free-market think tank. In 2005, the average rate was 674 pounds per hour, adjusted for inflation.
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