In an article in Law.com’s Texas Lawyer today, “Full-Service Offering Can Give Midsize Law Firms a Competitive Edge,” reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys analyzes the dynamics of the legal marketplace, specifically focusing on why middle market law firms are thriving as Big Law firms are getting bigger and pricier.

 

She spoke to FBFK’s Kyle Ferguson for his take as the leader of a fast-growing middle market firm.

 

Ferguson Braswell Fraser Kubasta is another firm benefiting from its full-service offering and expansion, adding more than a dozen lawyers since the beginning of 2024, including the launch of an office in Costa Mesa, California, in a merger with Stephens Friedland.

 

“We are seeing a lot of growth opportunities for full-service mid-market firms,” managing partner Kyle Ferguson said of his firm, which has other offices in Austin, Dallas and Houston.

 

The firm is busy, in part, he said, because of rate flexibility, with billing rates in the $350- to $850-an-hour range. That rate flexibility allows the firm to cater to the entrepreneurial side of the legal market while also providing full service.

 

Those clients, he said, aren’t accustomed to paying $1,500 an hour for a lawyer, which is a lot to ask when a business is generating $50 million or $60 million in revenue.

 

Ferguson said Ferguson Braswell, also known as FBFK, isn’t competing with Big Law firms but instead considers them “friends” who might be able to take a referral if his firm does not have a specific practice a client needs.

Ferguson Braswell markets itself as a “one-stop shop,” Ferguson said. “We do 95% of what a business needs.”