The Profit and

Performance
Improvement Guide

Continuing 30 Years of

Inter-firm
Comparison
Performance benchmark survey for law firms
2008
 Inter-firm Comparison and Salary Surveys
The Profit and Performance
Improvement Guide Inter-firm
Comparison survey gives your
firm practical solutions for profit
improvement – quickly.
Last year we identified an average profit
improvement of $1.4m per firm.
Survey outlines
1. The Profit and Performance Improvement
Guide
Your firm’s financial performance is compared to other firms,
including high profit firms, by size, type and location.
Your confidential survey report has specific recommendations
presented as a transparent profit improvement map. Your
report highlights what you need to know to improve the firm.
This annual business survey of the legal profession has
allowed FMRC to be the trusted advisers in practice
performance, measurement and improvement for 30 years.
2. Salary Survey
This survey report will allow you to make informed salary
decisions during your budget cycle.
This is the only Australian survey that connects a person’s
production to the salaries of lawyers.
How your firm will benefit:
At a business level, leaders will know:
• How their business is performing
• The next steps for profit and productivity improvement in
their firm
• If they are paying too much for practice overheads
At a human resource level, partners will know:
• What fee earners are paid relative to actual performance.
• What fee earners should bill relative to experience, location
and compensation.
1. The Profit and Performance Improvement
Guide
Your results are presented in a
comprehensive report to provide all
partners with a quick overview of your
results.
Within two weeks of submitting your
data, you receive a report showing how
your firm is performing plus:
• What is impacting on your firm
• A report on your profitability with commentary on
causes and opportunities
• A benchmark comparison with similar firms across 12 key
performance indicators
No nonsense Suggested strategies
advice Key indicators
Easy to understand summary allowing partners to gain an
overview of the firm’s performance
Meeting with your partners to review the results
and plan actions
You will have access to a live web meeting for one hour for your
partners and management team. Your firm may meet with our
management adviser within two weeks of receiving your report.
This meeting will:
• Review and explain our findings
• Agree workable strategies that focus on forces driving
change and factors critical to success
• Agree on actions you can implement now
How valuable is our report and meeting?
Ask another law firm what they gained from attending the
meeting with our adviser.
Call Graham Le Roux for law firm contacts 02 9262 3377
 Improvement follows measurement

2. Salary Survey Management advisers

This survey reports relevant average At the live web meeting you spend an hour with one of our advisers.
salaries, charge rates, budgets, work
Graham Le Roux
done and compensation packages for
all staff. It is released in December Graham has held various managerial roles in the
this year, to coincide with partner legal profession for the past 15 years. He has
planning prior to annual salary worked with major, small and medium sized law
reviews. members across the country. He specialises in
productivity and effectiveness practices and in
This is not another self serving particular seeks to help professional service members identify and
refine strategic direction.
salary survey. This is the only
guide to provide owners and Sam Coupland
managers with objective, factual, pragmatic
Sam advises in all areas of practice management
information on critical employment data. working with owners and managers to develop
their business. He heads consulting assignments
The salary survey provides: in firm strategy, practice planning, equity
• Timely talent market intelligence. valuations and equity transfers. Sam has worked
with a US technology group to bring Business
• Salary, charge rate, budget and actual performance Intelligence solutions to the Australian legal profession. Sam is
comparisons relative to experience and location. a frequent presenter on practice management related topics and
• A full range of contemporary law firm positions including fronts many FMRC programs. He is a regular guest presenter at
support positions are assessed. many professional conferences and often brings this knowledge to
in-house audiences.
• Performance review documentation as well as a
comprehensive suite of position descriptions. Neil Oakes

This survey is presented as an electronic report allowing easy
identification of appropriate salaries by position, location and
productivity.
This survey can be completed online and our web-based tutorials
will assist you in completing the survey and using the data.
Salary Survey issued: December 2008
Neil has been working almost exclusively
as a management consultant with the legal
profession for 20 years. He undertakes consulting
assignments for law firms throughout Australia
and New Zealand, specialising in strategic
advantage, profit growth strategies, contemporary
leadership and change management. Each year he is involved
with some 110 law firms of various sizes and specialty areas of
practice.

Survey details
Timing - Profit improvement in less than a month
· FMRC Inter Firm Comparison report - within two weeks of
submitting your data
· Live web meeting - within two weeks of receiving your report
· FMRC Salary Survey - released in December 2008

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats
Your investment
Strategy Plan
Leverage - review current
structure with 2.8 increase
$2,200 (incl. GST) to participate in the 2008 benchmark surveys
Productivity - reduce you will receive:
write offs
Realisation - discipline in
time recording • Inter-firm Comparison Report
Expense Reduction -
address staffing numbers
• Meeting with adviser to review the results and plan action
Price - New charge-out
rate
• Salary Survey Report

Guarantee
The live web-based meeting will allow your team to
We believe that these reports will enable your firm to implement
watch the images live on your computer screen while
profit improvement strategies which will recoup the cost by a factor
speaking with us on the telephone.
greater than ten. If we cannot identify improvement opportunities
of this magnitude we will return the registration fee to your firm.
FMRC Assistance in loading your survey data
FMRC has been serving the Australian and New Zealand legal Loading your data is now easier:
profession for over 30 years. We remain the industry’s adviser of
• The majority of the information required comes from your
choice for practice performance, measurement and improvement.
management accountants including:
Today we advise law firms throughout Australasia, from major • Profit and Loss Account
national firms to mid-sized, boutique and progressive small firms. • Balance Sheet
In addition, we also serve a number of government departments
• Payroll
and bodies.
• Practice Management System
Services we provide include: • A Personnel Worksheet makes it easy to compile your
• Benchmarking of the legal profession salary and production data

• Management workshops both public and private • Live online seminar plus phone and email support

• Equity valuation and broking services

• Performance consulting
• Strategic planning retreats
The combination of our research capability and consulting activities
enables us to provide empirical substantive advice rather than
anecdotal theoretical advice.

We look forward to working with your firm.

Firm Registration

Please enrol our firm in the inter-firm comparison and the salary
surveys: $2200 (incl. GST)
Graham Le Roux presenting the online tutorial
Firm
Online tutorial for completing the questionnaire
Name
To save you time, a 30 minute webinar, a live online seminar,
Name where those responsible for completing the questionnaire will
Postal Address learn the quickest and easiest ways to supply the data.

Postcode

Telephone Fax

Email | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

 I enclose a cheque (made payable to FMRC Legal Pty Ltd)

OR please charge my credit card Amount $______________
 Visa  Mastercard  AMEX

Card No.

Name on card Telephone support

Expiry date CVN No.
Simon Ostler will assist with queries and
Signature on card guide you through the data collection.
Simon has been involved in this survey for
TAX INVOICE the past 12 years.
Once completed this form constitutes a tax invoice from
FMRC Legal Pty Ltd ABN 80 083 010 075

FMRC Pty Ltd (ABN 80 083 010 075)

Level 2, 332 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000 Tel: 61 2 9262 3377 Fax: 61 2 9262 6749
email enquiries@fmrc.com.au www.fmrc.com.au
IFC-PPIGbroch_2008