As in other Australian jurisdictions, in WA it’s almost a necessity to move beyond the traditional hourly rate if you’re a Banking & Finance lawyer. Some 92% of survey respondents said they’d offered something different price wise in the past year.
Fixed and capped pricing led the way here with being used almost universally. Retainers and performance based pricing were also relatively common with just under a third of the market putting them to use.
Hourly Rates
Perth’s banking and finance lawyers sit as some of the country’s most expensive. With 54% of the market listing an hourly rate over $700 an hour Perth is only exceeded by Sydney when it comes to hourly rack rates for banking lawyers.
Given only 8% of the market price themselves between $400-$500 per hour and 15% pricing themselves between $500-$600 per hour there’s a lack of depth in the WA banking mid-tier. Admittedly there are concerted efforts by the mid-tier to increase their presence in the banking space however, in WA most market gains in WA are made in small steps even without the entry barrier of limited panel appointments to deal with.