With all the talk about how the Am Law 50 are significantly outperforming the rest of the nation’s largest firms, it can be a bit daunting for those at No. 51 and below to find reasons to be hopeful about their place in the market. But don’t let stratification get you down. There is a growing trend in Big Law that impacts the nation’s most profitable firms more acutely than any other segment: volatility.

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Equal parts strategy, fiscal management and psychology, leaders of Am Law 200 firms are increasingly having to manage unpredictable financial returns from one year to the next. Talk about adding stress to the budgeting process.