Recent office openings in “hot” markets like Austin and Salt Lake City have received a lot of attention in the trade press. A report by Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions suggests which cities will garner interest from BigLaw in the future, using measures of population growth and rate growth.

Thomson Reuters’ 2022 Report on the State of the Legal Market showed that demand was up in 2021, worked rates increased, realization was high, and profit growth was strong but was tempered by significant increases in compensation and turnover.

Revenue at law firms was up 14% through the first three quarters of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, according to Wells Fargo Legal Specialty Group’s Check-in Survey. WF Legal Specialty Group credited a “‘best of all worlds’ environment with almost everything going right: growth in demand, rates, and productivity.”

Firms appear to have met client expectations in 2020, perhaps reflecting clients’ appreciation of the challenge of performing while navigating the pandemic (BTI Consulting Survey, noting that the % of clients who would recommend their primary law firm to a peer increased from 49% in 2019 to 69% in 2020).

The 1st half of 2021 was very busy for law firms, according to a recent survey by the Legal Specialty Group at Wells Fargo. The pandemic’s onset in Q2 2020 set a lower baseline for year-over-year comparisons; yet still revenue, demand, rates, & productivity grew by impressive margins.

Florida is the latest state to consider law firm ownership by non-lawyers, as a state bar committee recently recommended that the Florida Supreme Court consider instituting a 3 year “laboratory” program, based on the “regulatory sandbox” model established in Utah.

As vaccinations rise, trials resume, and capital is deployed, demand for legal talent is back near pre-Covid levels.  There were 4,107 lateral moves in Q1 nationally, short of 2020’s highwater mark of 4,366 but north of the 5 yr avg of 3,759. Litigation (36%) and corporate (18%) led the way.  Similarly, lateral moves in North Carolina (74) eclipsed the 5 yr av. (68), but fell short of last year’s mark (83). 

As vaccinations rise, trials resume, and capital is deployed, demand for legal talent is back near pre-Covid levels.  There were 4,107 lateral moves in Q1 nationally, short of 2020’s highwater mark of 4,366 but north of the 5 yr avg of 3,759. Litigation (36%) and corporate (18%) led the way.  Similarly, lateral moves in North Carolina (74) eclipsed the 5 yr av. (68), but fell short of last year’s mark (83).