Law firms got bigger in 2012, but just barely. This year’s NLJ 350, The National Law Journal‘s annual survey of the nation’s biggest law firms by number of lawyers, shows that firms grew by just 1.1 percent during 2012, a retrenchment from 1.7 percent growth in 2011. A full 140 firms on this year’s list shrank in size 40 percent of the group.
Particularly telling were the low numbers of associates hired. As detailed in our overview story, "The Old Rules No Longer Apply," the results reflect the apparent once-and-forever demise of the business strategy of boosting revenues by deploying armies of associates. The 350 firms on this year’s list added a scant 622 associates a particularly troubling figure given that U.S. law schools continue to pump out 45,000 graduates each year.
