Pricing Report – Planning & Environment, Queensland 2012

 This listing details pricing trends and levels within the Queensland planning and environment legal services market.  It is compiled on the back of feedback from clients and solicitors practising within these areas.

Pricing levels across both planning and environment sectors have experienced little if any growth over the past year.  A reduction in the volume of work going around has seen firms reluctant to escalate pricing.

While many practitioners mane to successfully spread their practice across both of planning and environment the distinction in pricing expectations and levels between these two areas continued to widen.   The typically higher leveraged nature of the work and clientele in planning matters sees a sharper focus on hourly rates and the presence of a number of smaller and specialist firms only extends this pressure.

Alternatives to the hourly rate were few and far between.  Non-contentious work was subject the usual requirements of either global or stage based fee estimates however generally the requirement to stick to such estimates was less rigid in this area than it is in others.  On contentious matters unpredictability saw the hourly rate be the pricing mechanism of choice for both clients and firms alike with the use of blended rates for such matters becoming increasingly common.

Partner Hourly Rates Outline

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