It was inevitable that New Jersey’s legal industry would take a punch from the worst recession of the young century, and that happened in 2009. For the first time since the Law Journal began tracking the finances of the state’s largest firms, revenues and profits suffered declines.

But the drop wasn’t precipitous, and all things considered, it wasn’t a bad year, as the Top 20 bellwether firms continued on a path of smart growth and expense reduction evident in the two years prior.