Editor’s Note: Welcome to the 22nd edition of PaLaw: Annual Report on the Legal Profession. Each year we use this magazine to provide a detailed view of the state of the law in Pennsylvania, from one corner of the state (and the profession) to the other. Our aim is to cover all aspects of the law in Pennsylvania, including both the public and private sectors. In doing so, we look back at the year we’ve nearly completed, and ahead at the year to come. The articles, tables, charts and graphs in these pages represent a finger on the pulse of the legal community at this moment in time. It was another year of growth for Pennsylvania law firms, as Lizzy McLellan writes in her Firm Financials roundup on page 96. The only declines Pennsylvania’s largest firms experienced, in both revenue and profits per equity partner, were modest. Corporate practices helped buoy a year of nearly across-the-board growth in revenue. And, as Gina Passarella’s article on our 20th annual Managing Partners Survey, on page 76, points out, firms found a way to pay associates more and require fewer layoffs, all while watching financial metrics rise.
After predicting the onset of stratification among Pennsylvania firms in these pages last year, editor-in-chief Hank Grezlak writes this year, on page 94, that individual firm performance is expected to be a point of focus. Taking into account a variety of surveys and data from national banks and consultants, he finds slightly less optimism than can be found in the Managing Partners Survey about revenue and demand for 2016.
