legal industry research & business insights.

Uncover the financial health of New Zealand law firms in FY2023 and expert recommendations looking towards FY2024 and beyond.

As part of our commitment to helping you run a successful legal practice, ALPMA in conjunction with Findex, conducts financial performance benchmarking research for Australian law firms to help them assess how their firm is performing compared to similar competitors and identify areas for improvement.

To assess your financial performance and help with financial re-entry in 2022, you need to understand how your firm is performing compared to similar firms, identify areas for improvement - and then implement strategies to address them. As part of our commitment to helping you run a successful legal practice, ALPMA conducts free annual financial performance benchmarking research for law firms in conjunction with Findex in Australia.

What a difference a year can make. When we conducted this survey in 2019, no-one could have envisaged the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial impacts and challenges that were about to take place. Although this year is different, how firms bounce back and thrive will largely be a function of their financial strength and position pre-COVID-19.

The 2017 study collected information on firm investment in innovation, strategies to finance growth and charge-out rates - as well as the firm's performance across a number of key indicators (like profitability, work in progress days, debtor’s days, interest expense, labour cost, rent, and working capital).

The 2017 ALPMA / Crowe Horwath benchmarking survey of NZ law firms shows the sector is expecting an average of 5 per cent growth in the next financial year - building on gross profit margins that currently average nearly 75 per cent.

The FY16 ALPMA/Crowe Horwath Australian Legal Financial Performance Benchmarking Study survey was conducted between December 2016 and January 2017.

The 2016 ALPMA/Crowe Horwath New Zealand Legal Industry Financial Performance Benchmarking Study survey was conducted in September - November, 2016. More than forty firms from across New Zealand participated in the study.

In 2015 more than 100 firms participated in the study. Participants will be provided with a log-in to Open Measures, Crowe Horwath's powerful benchmarking tool, to interrogate their results and visualise their performance to similar firms across eight key performance indicators on 23 February, 2016.