Cost Effective Hourly Rates
Fees & Hourly Rates
Our rates are extremely competitive compared to the rates charged by other commercial law firms.
Having worked at Freehills, one of Australia's largest national law firms, for several years and becoming a partner of a middle sized firm Marcus Ahern has seen the best and worst efficiency in legal practice. Aherns Lawyers hourly rates of Partners, Solicitors and Law Clerks are fixed at $200 - $370 per hour depending on the complexity of the matter. These hourly rates are extremely competitive when compared with the hourly rates of other of Australia's commercial law firms.
We deliver practical cost effective legal advice.
The most important factor in selecting a law firm is to plan who will appear for you at trial and assess how many staff are needed to work on the case. It is inefficient for several Solicitors, Clerks and Partners to spend time perusing a file and working on it charging hourly rates upwards of $500.00 per hour. The cumulative effect of Law Clerks charging $240 per hour, Solicitors charging $400 per hour and Partners charging $500 per hour is that well over $1000 per hour is spent on the file. The most efficient practice is to have tasks carried out by the least expensive person available who has the experience necessary for the task.
For this reason, our practice is to allow our selected barristers to liaise day to day with Law Clerks at Aherns Lawyers on issues regarding the collation of evidence and the preparation of the case so that large cumulative hourly rates of higher paid Solicitors are only used when necessary.
Our hourly rates vary from $240 per hour to $370 depending on the type of matter and complexity.
The hourly rate that we charge for experienced law clerks is fixed at $240 per hour.
The Supreme Court scale of Fees is calculated on the basis of an hourly rate for Senior Practitioners of $363.00. The hourly rates charged by most Senior Solicitors on commercial and commercial litigation files are way in excess of that hourly rate. The highest hourly rate charged on our complex commercial litigation files in the District and Supreme Courts is $370.00 per hour.
Financial Review
The following extract is from an article in the Financial Review on Monday 16th May 2005 which discussed fees charged by law firms and supports the philosophy that is held by Aherns Lawyers.
"The cheapest qualified person to do each task that is required to be done on a file should do that task." Please see our fees and hourly rates above which sets out our approach in this regard.
Australia's largest law firms are coming under pressure from corporate clients to deliver more services for less money as organisations search for new ways to reduce costs.David Krasnostein, general counsel for the National Australia Bank, said 'If you step back and think about how a law firm can be efficient, what you want is the fewest number of hours put in a matter by the most expensive lawyers,' he says. 'And you want the most amount of hours by the cheapest lawyers or paralegals, while at the same time maintaining a level of quality that you need'."
