Emerging reports on 2023 indicate that last year was a great one for midsize firms. Demand shifted to the middle market from larger firms, and realization rates held stronger than they did for Big Law peers. Midsize firms also took advantage of a more fertile talent market after Big Law’s talent wars cooled off, setting themselves up for more growth in 2024.

For the Am Law 100 and the Am Law 50, last year was a different story. Demand fell as countercyclical practices couldn’t quite offset slow transactional groups, which created productivity issues at firms that just got done hiring aggressively in 2022.