THE BAR'S PERIODIC survey of lawyer income and expenses shows that the 1999 median income for all New Hampshire attorneys was $62,400, compared to $55,000 in 1995, representing annual income increases averaging 3.4 percent. The median hourly billing rate charged by attorneys in private practice last year was $150, a 20 percent increase from the previous survey's figure.

The survey, sponsored by the Bar's Law Practice Management Section and gathered through questionnaires circulated last summer, provides members with NH-specific information on trends in net income and prevailing billing rates, cross-referenced by substantive areas of practice, law firm size and location, by levels of experience and by gender. The survey, conducted every five years since 1985, also provides information on salaries paid to associates, legal assistants and secretaries, and reports on lawyers' allocations of time to various activities and their perceptions of demand for legal services. The survey results were compiled by the Applied Statistics Laboratory, Ann Arbor, Mich., under the direction of Lawrence Stiffman, Ph.D., a consultant who conducts similar surveys for several Bar associations across the country using essentially the same instrument.

Copies of the survey are being mailed to every active in-state member of the Bar, and survey is available immediately on the Bar's Web site.

Visit the Publications portion of the site for a downloadable version, complete with all of the tables.

Despite headlines in Boston and other big cities regarding soaring salaries for associates, salaries are rising much more slowly in New Hampshire. Even attorneys in the state's largest firms reported median incomes of only $145,000 - the reported starting salary for associates in some large metropolitan law firms. (With the exception of income figures for 1999, all questions relate to 2000.)

Incomes varied widely by location in New Hampshire. Attorneys in communities of less than 7,000 people reported median incomes of $48,500, while in areas between 7,000 to 40,000, median incomes ranged from $60,000 to $70,000, and in areas of more than 70,000, median incomes were $75,000.

In his report, Stiffman notes that "some catch-up has occurred" from 1995 to 1999 as income has slightly outpaced the increase in expenses for most lawyers. During the previous survey period, attorney income stagnated and expenses rose during New Hampshire's intense economic downturn of the early 1990s.

Satisfaction with workload

NH practitioners appear satisfied with their lot: 60 percent believed they had all the work they can handle, with slightly less than 30 percent believing they had more work than they preferred. Less than 20 percent reported they were unsatisfied with their jobs, and less than 10 percent said they were on the brink of leaving their job or the legal profession. Responding to questionnaires mailed in the summer of 2000, a solid 50 percent expected the economy not to change the outlook for their practice this year, with slightly under 30 percent expecting economic conditions to improve.

Who are the highest paid?

The highest-paid attorneys, as measured by median annual incomes, were those who identified their primary areas of concentration as professional malpractice and trial practice, earning $102,500 yearly, followed by workers' compensation ($99,000) and collections ($95,000). The lowest median income reported was for family law at $45,833 - which was also the most common area of practice, named by 119 of the 793 respondents to that survey question.

Other statistics of interest:

• Median billing rates for associates started at $110 per hour and ranged as high as $240, while legal assistants' median rates were billed at $50 to a high of $160 per hour.

• Overhead expenses as a percentage of gross receipts (including non-lawyer personnel, office equipment, phones, research costs and other expenses) ranged from 37 percent to 53 percent, depending on the size of the community.

• Only 43 percent of respondents reported using legal assistants in their practice.

• Two-thirds of the attorneys report using some form of marketing in their practice. Yellow Pages advertising has slipped with only 28 percent purchasing display ads, compared to more than 50 percent in 1990. Eleven percent used newspaper advertising, and almost 10 percent used seminars to attract clients. Fifteen percent of the respondents said their law firm or organization has a Web site.

In its introduction to the report, the Law Practice Management Committee said that the survey's findings have many uses for individual attorneys in evaluating their existing practices or in making mid-career decisions. From a firm manager's perspective, the survey can be used to compare expenses and personnel costs to other firms in similar situations in the state. In the report and in an interview, Stiffman said it is difficult to compare the results of New Hampshire to other national surveys because of the rural, small-practice nature of the legal community in the Granite State.

Additional copies of the report are available by contacting Deb Cyr, NHBA Member Services Coordinator, at 603 224-6942 or at dcyr@nhbar.org.

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