The latest annual numbers from Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group, a survey drawing on financial data from more than 130 law firms, found that revenues grew year-over-year by 6%, with some momentum coming into 2024. That 6% revenue growth rate was an acceleration even from the 4.6% rate seen in the first nine months of the year and double the 3.0% growth rate of 2022. The Wells Fargo survey draws data from 70 Am Law 100 firms, 35 in the Am Law Second Hundred, and other regional firms. Here’s how my colleague Andrew Maloney summed up the Wells Fargo findings released last week over at The American Lawyer:

Law firms didn’t get a hoped-for transactional rebound to end 2023. But they did see acceleration on the demand and revenue front, a strong collections push and billing rates that continued to climb to new heights, according to results from a Wells Fargo survey.

Additionally, as opposed to last year, many in the industry believe they have their staffing levels calibrated to capture an upswing in work and they’re optimistic that countercyclical practices will stay hot while also getting that much-anticipated transactional pickup.

Andrew points out that it was “countercyclical” practices including litigation, restructuring, regulatory, antitrust, intellectual property, energy, privacy, and labor and employment that buoyed last year’s results. (We’ll hold off the debate on whether litigation is countercyclical or acyclical for another day.)