The first half of the year has been challenging for the U.S. legal industry, as revenue growth slowed and expense growth accelerated, according to a midyear Citi report, but homegrown Texas firms fared better than the national average.

“The Texas firms seemed to have figured out that when the top-line growth environment isn’t cooperating, there are other things that they can execute — prompt collections, getting billing rates increases through, managing head count,” said Michael McKenney, a senior client adviser in Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group.