Market Overview
With Herbert Smith Freehills’ Frank Poeta, the team at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Squire Patton Boggs’ Carl Black seemingly having a stranglehold on the majority of institutional property work occurring in the WA marketa different pricing dynamic has emerged in the WA property market.
Hourly Rate
When it comes to the market’s property lawyers it would seem that there’s those who charge at the upper end of town and those who charge at the lower end but very few who charge in the middle. 43% of respondents listed their hourly rate at above $600 per hour (with 18% of these above $700 per hour) and 49% listed their hourly rate as below $500 per hour. As such only 8% of the market sat within the $500-$600 per hour band that is common in property lawyers in other states.
Most surprising though was that 19% of respondents listed an hourly rate under $400 per hour – while property lawyers are rarely afforded the luxury of charging by the hour this hourly rate makes these Perth property lawyers some of the cheapest in the country.
Alternative Billing
100% of survey respondents listed that they offer pricing models beyond the simple hourly rate. In property law this percentage and widespread use of alternative billing methods is far from unusual .