Professional services
Law Practice Staffing Cost Calculator
Totals staffing cost across a practice, where support staff decide what attorneys can bill.
Result
Paralegals and administrative staff are treated differently on purpose, because they are different economically. Paralegal time is generally billable, so a paralegal can be a profit centre rather than an overhead, and the recovery calculation is how you tell which. Administrative staff never bill and are pure overhead, justified by the fee earner time they free up rather than by revenue they generate. The burden figure is easy to underestimate: payroll taxes, workers compensation, health insurance, retirement contributions and paid leave together add a substantial percentage on top of salary, and leaving it out understates every headcount decision.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Each role's count times salary, with a labour burden applied for payroll taxes, insurance, benefits and paid time, giving the monthly and annual cost and the cost per attorney. The ratio of support staff to attorneys is the figure worth watching, since it determines both overhead and how much of an attorney's day is billable.
What moves the number
- Support staff ratio, which cuts both ways on profitability.
- Paralegal time, which is billable in many practice areas.
- Labour burden on top of salaries.
- Overtime exemption status by role.
Where this one goes wrong
Cutting support staff raises the share of attorney time spent on administrative work, and attorney time is the most expensive in the building, so the saving is frequently negative. Paralegals are the clearest case, since their time is billable in many areas at a rate well above their cost while also removing work from attorneys. On classification, overtime exemption depends on duties and salary tests rather than on being salaried, and legal support roles are a common site of misclassification.
Before you quote
- Compare support staff savings against attorney time absorbed.
- Confirm which support roles are genuinely overtime exempt.
- Track billable paralegal time separately from support cost.
Where the rules come from
Questions
About this calculator
Does cutting support staff save money?
Often not, because the work moves to attorneys whose time is the most expensive in the building. The apparent saving on salary is frequently smaller than the billable hours lost, and the effect appears gradually rather than immediately.
Are paralegals a cost or a revenue source?
In many practice areas both: their time is billable at a rate above their cost, and they also remove work from attorneys. Tracking their billable hours separately is what makes that visible, and most practices under-delegate rather than over.
Are legal assistants exempt from overtime?
Not automatically. Exemption depends on duties and salary tests rather than on being salaried or on the job title, and support roles in legal practices are a common site of misclassification. Checking against the actual tests is worth doing before an audit does it for you.
The formula
total = sum of (headcount x salary) x (1 + burden); paralegal recovery = paralegals x billable hours x rate x realization
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How to use this calculator
- Fee earners. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 4.
- Paralegals. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 2.
- Paralegal salary ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $62,000.
- Legal assistants and secretaries. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 2.
- Legal assistant salary ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $48,000.
- Reception, billing and administration. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 1.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to total support staff cost, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Fee earners | 4 |
| Paralegals | 2 |
| Paralegal salary | $62,000 |
| Legal assistants and secretaries | 2 |
| Legal assistant salary | $48,000 |
| Reception, billing and administration | 1 |
| Administrative salary | $44,000 |
| Employment burden | 28% |
| Annual revenue | $1,850,000 |
| Billable hours a paralegal records per year | 1,200 |
| Paralegal billing rate | $145 |
| Realization and collection on that time | 80% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Total support staff cost main result | $337,920 |
| Support cost per fee earner | $84,480 |
| Support staff per fee earner | 1.3 |
| As a share of revenue | 18.3% |
| Recovered through billed paralegal time | $278,400 |
| Net cost of the paralegals | -$119,680 |
| Employment burden on top of salaries | $73,920 |
Support staff cost $337,920, which is 18.3% of revenue and $84,480 per fee earner at a ratio of 1.3 to one. The paralegals more than pay for themselves: they recover $278,400 against a cost of $119,680 less than that.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only paralegal salary, this is what happens to total support staff cost. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Paralegal salary ($) | Total support staff cost |
|---|---|
| $31,000 | $258,560 |
| $46,500 | $298,240 |
| $62,000 example above | $337,920 |
| $93,000 | $417,280 |
| $124,000 | $496,640 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Fee earners
- A number, between 1 and 500, starting at 4.
- Paralegals
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 2.
- Paralegal salary ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 500000, starting at $62,000.
- Legal assistants and secretaries
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 2.
- Legal assistant salary ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 500000, starting at $48,000.
- Reception, billing and administration
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 1.
- Administrative salary ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 500000, starting at $44,000.
- Employment burden (%)
- Payroll taxes, insurance, retirement, paid leave. On top of salary.
- Annual revenue ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 500000000, starting at $1,850,000.
- Billable hours a paralegal records per year
- A number, between 0 and 3000, starting at 1,200.
- Paralegal billing rate ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 2000, starting at $145.
- Realization and collection on that time (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 100, starting at 80%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Total support staff cost | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Support cost per fee earner | A money figure. |
| Support staff per fee earner | A decimal figure. |
| As a share of revenue | A percentage. |
| Recovered through billed paralegal time | A money figure. |
| Net cost of the paralegals | A money figure. |
| Employment burden on top of salaries | A money figure. |
Keep going
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