While surging expenses have kept law firm leaders up at nightly lately, costs in the legal industry actually went down “sharply” by the end of the year, analysts found, and they expect the trend to continue in 2023.

Costs dropped by the end of the fourth quarter in 2022 due to a mix of prepayment of expenses from the prior year and law firms being more frugal in staffing, compensation and bonuses, analysts said.