Legal Recession May End Soon
In the latest sign that the recession in the legal profession may end soon, businesses will once again begin increasing their law budgets in the second half of this year according to the study BTI Mid-Year Spending Update and Outlook.
Key findings of the study include:
- Corporate legal spending at large companies will grow nearly 5% over the next 6 months, bringing overall market growth to only negative 1.4 percent for the year.
- Clear signs of renewed legal spending after a sharp decline of 7% since year-end 2008.
- Leading the growth in spending will be the practice areas of regulatory compliance, employment, securities and bankruptcy/corporate restructuring law.
- Year-to-date, the hardest hit core practice areas have been corporate, securities and finance, and intellectual property.
The legal profession was clobbered by the recession beginning in 2008. As of today, 102 major law firms are listed on the Law.com Layoff List. Larger firms have laid off 10,015 people this year (3,851 lawyers, 6,250 staff) according to LawShucks.
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