Editor’s Note: This story is adapted from ALM’s Mid-Market Report. For more business of law coverage exclusively geared toward midsize firms, sign up for a free trial subscription to ALM’s weekly newsletter, The Mid-Market Report. This is the first in a multi-part series looking at how demand for midsize firms has changed in the decade since the Great Recession first took hold and how those firms are positioned for the future.

Early in the last economic downturn, savvy midsize firm leaders began to sense that their moment was coming, as buzz grew that Big Law’s ever-ascending rates were becoming untenable for increasingly cost-conscious clients.