Introducing Bodhala’s New Legal Benchmarking Solutions

4 min read

Rate benchmarking overview graphic showing cost impact, average partner rates, and insights for legal operations, focusing on M&A practice areas for 2021.

Legal Operations

Matter benchmarking overview displaying overall cost, hourly rates, and staffing efficiency metrics for legal operations, highlighting cost above market and staffing hours below market.

Are you overpaying your law firms? What should your upcoming matter cost? Are your law firms delivering the value their rates warrant?

Historically, in-house teams have lacked the transparency and insights needed to answer these questions.

Until now.

Meet Bodhala’s new Benchmarking Solutions — the easiest way to compare your rates and matters against your panel and the market at large. 

With significant improvements to Rate Benchmarking and our brand new Matter Benchmarking solution, corporate legal teams can finally access the market insights necessary to budget smarter, negotiate harder, and save money on outside legal counsel.

Let’s take a look at what’s new!


Rate Benchmarking

Rate benchmarking overview graphic displaying 2021 cost impact of $900,000 - $1,200,000, total spend of $7,123,123, and insights on legal spend management strategies for M&A practice areas.

Our new and improved Rate Benchmarking delivers what corporate legal leaders have been waiting for – accurate benchmarks coupled with usable insights. Get ready legal ops folks — budgeting, rate negotiation, and internal reporting just got a whole lot easier! 

We enhanced our rate benchmarks by adding named timekeeper benchmarks, cost impact analysis, projected ROI on increase mitigation, and more. 

Compare Your Benchmarks from Firm to Firm

Rate benchmarking overview table displaying law firm names, practice areas, yearly costs, average associate and partner rates, and historical cost impacts, relevant to legal operations and contract management insights.

We added an overview of all of your benchmarks, enabling you to easily find and compare your firm benchmarks. This comprehensive view highlights how each firm stacks up against one another and the rest of the market — plus, it makes all of your benchmarks easier to access.

Ratings in red, yellow, and green make it simple to identify where you’re getting a good deal and where you may want to focus your negotiation efforts. 

Historical Impact Analysis

Cost impact analysis for 2021 showing high financial implications, indicating an excess of $900,000 to $1,200,000 compared to market-appropriate rates, relevant to legal operations and contract management.

Ever asked yourself, “How much could we have saved if we paid more market-appropriate rates?” 

We thought so. Well, it’s time to stop wondering because Bodhala’s new Rate Benchmarking crunches those numbers for you. 

We analyze your spend with a firm across practice areas, calculating how much you would have saved if your rates were closer to market standards. Seeing those numbers in black and white (or red…) really puts things in perspective, helping you decide if any rate mitigation effort is worth your time.

Named Timekeeper Benchmarks

Named Timekeeper Benchmarks and Cost Analysis table showing average effective rates, billed rates, and market ranges for legal professionals from Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, relevant to legal operations and contract management insights.

All timekeepers are not created equal. Sure, you’re willing to pay the big bucks for those star players, but does every partner deserve that “star treatment”? 

Just think of how easy rate review will be when you can simply pull up the benchmarks for all of your individual timekeepers. And when it comes time to select counsel for that big upcoming matter? Break out those named timekeeper benchmarks and quickly identify the highest value player on your roster. 


Matter Benchmarking

Matter benchmarking dashboard displaying overall cost, hourly rates, and staffing efficiency metrics for legal operations, emphasizing cost analysis and recommendations for contract management improvements.

With Bodhala’s Matter Benchmarking you’ll get unparalleled insights into what a matter costs, how many hours were worked, and a deep analysis of staffing and rates – down to the individual task or document. 

Matter benchmarks will simplify your budgeting process and help you refine your outside counsel guidelines to ensure you’re never paying more than you should for your matters.  

Get Market and Panel Benchmarks

Bar chart displaying percentage of hours worked by legal professionals, comparing actual, internal, and market metrics for partners, associates, and paralegals, relevant to legal operations and contract management insights.

Matter Benchmarking compares your matters not just against similar matters from similar firms across the market, but also to your own internal panel. 

Having both internal panel and market benchmarks provides you with a unique perspective on your current panel of firms. You can not only improve matter allocation on future matters but also make smarter decisions about how you manage your entire panel. 

Detailed Look at Rates & Hours

Bar chart displaying average legal rates: blended rate, partner, associate, and paralegal/other, with actual rates in black, internal rates in yellow, and market rates in blue, relevant to legal spend management insights by Onit.

Every report breaks down both rates and hours by timekeeper level, comparing those rates and hours to both the market and your panel. Rates are only part of the picture so understanding how the matter was staffed, in addition to your rates, delivers true cost analysis. 

Drill Down Into Tasks & Documents 

Subscription agreement dashboard showing legal cost analysis, including rate benchmarks and staffing efficiency metrics for legal operations and contract management.

Say you’re doing a fund formation and you’re curious how many hours a subscription agreement should really take. Look no further. 

You can stop wondering how many hours that document or task should take – Matter Benchmarking gives you the answers. With benchmarks for hours and staffing ratios, you can keep current matters on track, and budget more effectively for the next one. 

We’re here to help

Bodhala’s Client Success Team offers full white-glove service, from highlighting key savings opportunities to consulting on tactical strategies for rate negotiation or matter staffing — and everything in between.

Ready to start running legal like a business?

When it comes to managing your outside counsel spend, you have more leverage than you realize. You just don’t have the data yet. 

Bodhala’s Benchmarking Solutions put insights at your fingertips, enabling you to make strategic decisions across your legal department – from rates to matters and everything in between.

Ready to give it a spin?

TRY RATE BENCHMARKING FOR FREE!