MHSB Solutions Intelligent Automation for Law Firms

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Flat-fee matter profitability calculator

Enter a flat-fee matter, the hours it actually took, and the hourly rate you need to earn. See the effective rate the fee delivered, where it breaks even, and how far it sits above or below your target. It takes under a minute, and every number is yours.

Your matter

The single agreed fee for the whole matter, in dollars.

Total attorney and staff hours the matter consumed. Use your real time, not the estimate.

The rate that makes this work worth doing: your cost to deliver an hour plus the margin you want. Clio's 2024 Legal Trends Report puts the average lawyer rate near $341 per hour, and its Compare Lawyer Rates page shows rates running from roughly $461 (corporate) down to about $135 (juvenile). Enter the number your firm needs.

Pre-fills an illustrative target rate. Replace it with your own.

Effective hourly rate

$250 per hour
Below your target rate

This fee earns less per hour than the rate you set. Below target is a pricing signal, not an accounting loss: it means the matter is priced under the rate you told us you need.

Margin versus your target -$910 -26.7%
Break-even hours at your target 7.3 hours 2.7 hours over budget
Fee that would hit your target $3,410

The default target rate is drawn from Clio 2024. Every other figure here is arithmetic on the fee, hours, and target rate you enter, so the result is only as good as those numbers.

Figures you entered

How this is calculated

The effective rate is the flat fee divided by the hours the matter took. Break-even hours are the hours that fee covers at your target rate; work past them and the effective rate drops below target. Margin versus target is the fee minus what those hours would bill at your target rate. The verdict compares the effective rate to your target rate, which is the profitability bar you set. Full method and every coefficient are documented in the model.

Sources

  • Clio 2024 Legal Trends Report (9th edition, October 2024): average lawyer hourly rate about $341.
  • Clio Compare Lawyer Rates: hourly rate by practice area and state.

The flat fee, the hours, and the practice-area target presets have no primary source. They ship as clearly marked assumptions or your own entries, and you should replace them with your firm data.

The Clio figures above are published benchmarks used as an editable reference frame, not a live lookup. Replace the target rate with your firm's own number.

Turn this into a pricing decision

A Phase 1 diagnostic reviews how your firm prices and runs its matters, then shows which fees to reset first. No obligation.

Book your pricing diagnostic