HeyCounsel Pulse · May 2026 Report
Going solo doesn't mean flying blind.
Historically, boutique lawyers have had to guess at the benchmarks that define a successful practice: Am I pricing correctly? Am I spending too much time on admin? Where is everyone else finding clients?
HeyCounsel Pulse is our “under-the-hood” report of the modern independent practice. Based on aggregated, anonymized data from our curated community of 443 attorneys, we provide insight into exactly how your peers are structuring, running, and scaling their firms today.
Inside our Community
HeyCounsel is a curated community of fractional, solo, and boutique lawyers. We're practice area and jurisdiction agnostic, though predominantly U.S.-based.
- Members
- 443
- Specialties
- 307
- Jurisdictions
- 66
- Countries
- 21
Jurisdictions
United States
Seasoned Veterans Going Independent
70% of HeyCounsel members have been practicing law for more than a decade. Many members built their careers at top-tier firms, Fortune 500 companies, or high-growth startups, and have recently made the leap to independent practice: 55% have been running their own firms for two years or less.
Legal Experience
Most of our members have been practicing law for more than a decade.
Years Independent
The majority of our members started their own firms in the last few years.
Small, but mighty
Most HeyCounsel firms are lean: just 16% have 2+ full-time attorneys. But lean does not mean limited. Members scale their capacity with AI, automation, flexible staffing, and support from the broader HeyCounsel network.
Distribution of Firm Sizes
Based on full-time attorney headcount. “Solo” means no additional attorneys or non-lawyer staff; “Solo + team” means one full-time attorney with additional 1099 attorneys or non-lawyer staff; “2+ attorneys” means two or more full-time attorneys.
Billing Methods & Pricing
HeyCounsel lawyers experiment with multiple pricing models. 71% of the community uses flat, project-based fees. Over a third use subscription pricing. And the billable hour is not dead.
How members bill
Hourly Fee Distribution
Distribution of typical fees among members who bill hourly.
Members-only insight
Are you leaving money on the table? See how much independent lawyers are actually charging per hour.
Unlock with membershipMonthly Subscription Price Distribution
Among members who bill via subscription.
Members-only insight
What does a typical monthly subscription fee look like for your practice area?
Unlock with membershipThe 50/50 Split
If you feel like you spend as much time running your business as you do practicing law, you aren't alone. On average, 53% of a typical month is spent on actual client work. The remainder is consumed by the realities of entrepreneurship: business development (18%) and back-office administration (15%) eat up a full third of the month.
Time allocation in a typical month
Revenue, Expenses, and Owner Earnings
Members can see the full distribution of firm gross revenue, expenses, and owner earnings, and can filter the data by firm size, practice area, or jurisdiction to see the most relevant results for their practice.
Firm gross revenue (trailing 12 months)
Firm total expenses (trailing 12 months)
Owner Earnings (trailing 12 months)
Revenue Sources
On average, members say that 62% of their revenue comes directly from referrals. That's not to say other channels aren't worth investing in. But the reality is that the legal profession still runs on trust, and your relationships and network are still your most powerful assets. That's why we built HeyCounsel!