The folks at Georgetown University and Thomson Reuters published their annual report on the state of the legal market earlier this week. Although it’s a must-read for law firm leaders, it’s not exactly what you’d call a pleasure read given the current state of play.
Here’s how my Law.com colleague Andrew Maloney summed up the findings:
High expenses, high associate pay and lower profits per partner may force law firms to make “increasingly difficult decisions” this year and beyond, according to a new report.
The 2023 Report on the State of the Legal Market, published Tuesday, concluded that after a 0.1% drop in demand last year, Big Law will likely rely on significant rate hikes to maintain profits this year and next year.
But if that doesn’t work, they’ll have to condition partners to smaller payouts—or perhaps make more personnel cuts, the report’s authors said.
