How Much Does Managed IT Cost for a Law Firm in Houston or DFW?

Managed IT for a law firm runs $150 to $250 per device per month plus $15 to $35 per mailbox, with Microsoft licensing billed separately. Law firms run more devices per person than most businesses because attorneys typically carry a laptop for court and client sites alongside their desk setup, so the real question isn't the rate, it's your device count. Below, the math is worked out for two real firm shapes: a 5-attorney litigation practice and a 20-attorney full-service firm.

Managed IT for a law firm is priced by device and by mailbox, not by headcount. Braintek’s packages run $150 to $250 per device per month plus $15 to $35 per mailbox per month, with Microsoft licensing billed separately. That’s the same pricing structure we publish for every industry we serve, but law firms have a wrinkle most businesses don’t: attorneys usually run two devices, a desktop at the office and a laptop that travels to court, depositions, and client sites. Staff typically run one.

This page works the numbers for law firms specifically; for the cross-industry version, the cost drivers, and what the fee should include, see our full managed IT services cost guide.

Rather than hand you a range and wish you luck, here’s the math worked out for two common firm shapes.

Scenario 1: a 5-attorney litigation firm

Picture a Houston litigation practice: 5 attorneys, 2 paralegals, a legal assistant, and an office manager. Nine people. The attorneys each run a desktop plus a courtroom laptop, staff run one workstation each, and the firm keeps one on-premises server for document management.

Line item	Count	Monthly cost
Attorney devices (5 × 2)	10	$1,500 to $2,500
Staff devices	4	$600 to $1,000
Document-management server	1	$150 to $250
Mailboxes (9 staff; shared mailboxes are free)	9	$135 to $315
Estimated monthly total		$2,385 to $4,065

Now put that against what the firm sells: attorney time. If your blended billable rate is $350 an hour, the entire monthly IT spend equals roughly 7 to 12 billable hours, firmwide. One document-management outage that idles five attorneys for three hours costs the firm about 15 attorney-hours, more than a month of managed IT, before counting the deadline risk and the client sitting on the other end of the matter.

Scenario 2: a 20-attorney full-service firm

Now a Dallas–Fort Worth firm with 20 attorneys across practice groups and 18 staff: paralegals, legal assistants, billing, and administration. Attorneys run desktop plus laptop, staff run one machine, and two servers carry the on-premises workloads.

Line item	Count	Monthly cost
Attorney devices (20 × 2)	40	$6,000 to $10,000
Staff devices	18	$2,700 to $4,500
Servers	2	$300 to $500
Mailboxes (38 staff; shared mailboxes are free)	38	$570 to $1,330
Estimated monthly total		$9,570 to $16,330

Same lens: at a blended $300 an hour, the monthly spend is 32 to 54 billable hours across 20 attorneys, or under 3 hours per attorney per month. Firms rarely track it, but slow systems, login problems, and waiting on an unresponsive help desk routinely cost more than that per attorney. The industry pages for law firms cover what that support should actually include for a practice.

Your firm won’t match either scenario exactly, and that’s the point: bring your actual attorney count, staff count, and server situation, and the same arithmetic produces your number. A firm that has moved everything to hosted platforms drops the servers from the list. A firm that issues attorneys a single laptop with a dock cuts the device count by a third.

What should the monthly fee include?

Two quotes at the same per-device rate can cover very different things. Before comparing anyone’s number, get the inclusion list in writing. At minimum, a managed rate for a law firm should cover:

Help desk support by phone and email, with response fast enough to matter on a filing day
Remote monitoring and patching on every covered device
Endpoint protection and email security on every device and mailbox
MFA, encryption, and access controls, implemented and documented
Tested backups of matter files, email, and the systems behind your practice
The security documentation you need for client questionnaires and cyber-insurance applications
Vendor coordination with your practice-management, document-management, and billing software vendors

The last two are where law-firm quotes quietly differ. Client security questionnaires and insurance applications are now routine for firms, and if the documentation isn’t part of the service, you’ll pay for it separately when the questionnaire lands on your desk.

Why the billable-hour lens is the honest one

IT spend is easy to judge as a cost line and easy to misjudge that way. A litigation firm doesn’t buy patching and monitoring; it buys attorneys who are billing instead of rebooting, filings that go out on time, and client data that stays where it belongs. Priced against the hours it protects, managed IT for a firm is one of the few line items you can evaluate with arithmetic instead of faith. Run the numbers for your own firm, and if you want them checked, we’ll do the math with you.

Want your firm's actual number?

Tell us your attorney and staff counts, whether your practice-management and document systems run on premises or hosted, and how your people work between office, home, and court. We'll quote a flat monthly figure for your firm, not a range that moves later.

FAQs

Why is IT for law firms priced by device instead of by attorney or employee?

Because the device is what gets supported. An attorney with a desktop at the office and a laptop for court is one person but two managed endpoints: two machines to patch, protect, monitor, and fix. Pricing by device means the quote tracks the environment you actually run instead of a headcount average that fits nobody.

Attorneys carrying two devices nearly doubles their cost. Is that avoidable?

It's a real trade-off. Some firms issue one laptop per attorney with a dock and monitors at the office, which cuts the device count to one per person and genuinely lowers the monthly spend. Others keep the desktop-plus-laptop setup for performance or preference. Either way the pricing follows the actual machines, so the decision is yours and the math is transparent.

Is Microsoft 365 licensing included in the per-device rate?

No. Microsoft licensing is billed separately from the managed IT rate so you can see exactly what goes to support versus software, and so licensing changes don't hide inside your support bill.

Do you support our practice-management and document-management software?

We support the environment those applications run on: the servers or hosting they live on, the workstations they run on, the backups behind them, and their performance. When an issue sits inside the application itself, we coordinate directly with the software vendor so your staff isn't stuck in the middle relaying messages.

What about of-counsel attorneys and contract staff?

If they use a firm-managed device or mailbox, they're counted, because they represent the same support load and the same security surface as anyone else. If they work entirely on their own equipment, talk to us about secure access options, since an unmanaged personal laptop touching client files is a bigger risk question than a billing question.

Does the price include the security documentation clients and insurers ask for?

Ask this of any provider you evaluate, because it's where quotes quietly differ. Our managed service includes the controls and the documentation: the evidence you need for client security questionnaires and cyber-insurance applications. If a quote you're comparing doesn't say so in writing, assume it's extra.

What if we're bigger than 50 people?

Fully managed support fits roughly 10 to 50 person firms best. Larger firms usually do better with co-managed IT, where your internal IT staff handles day-to-day work and we cover the depth: security, projects, escalations, and after-hours coverage.