Although the inflation rate is down, law firms are still fighting “across-the-board” cost increases, including for talent and technology, as well as overhead costs for occupancy. Those costs are expected to have an outsize influence on law firm operations going into 2024.

The rising costs are one factor in firms’ decisions to push through relatively high billing rate increases again in 2024, as well as the decision by some firms to pull back on business development, training, and perhaps recruiting and associate promotions, some analysts and consultants say.