Litigators are seeing even once resilient big-ticket fees come under pressure from the boardroom as companies look for ways to slash their legal bills. James Boxell reports

In an era of mammoth banking investigations and costly disputes involving Russian billionaires, litigators are still feted as the big-billing bread winners of many law firms. But evidence is mounting that they are being forced to scrap far harder for business, particularly on the more routine cases that make up a large slice of the litigation market, as an anecdote from one senior partner at a London disputes practice shows.