Hard as it may be for those who follow the legal profession to believe, the economy for the past year has been a tad rough. So says a slew of headlines, article and blog posts around the net this week. So before I fill you in on the predictions and prognostications of experts, allow me to look into my own crystal ball for a minute…
I predict that in the absence of any actual news, news organizations and blogs will run story after story about the economy for the next month, even when there are no new facts or figures to report. I predict that none of these stories will be the least bit surprising to anyone that didn’t pull a Rip Van Winkle this year. And lastly, I predict that we’ll all read them, looking for that nugget of hope to hang on to as the new year starts.
So now for the latest in what will likely be a long stream of similar articles: Citi Private Bank predicts that law firm revenues for the year are down by five to ten percent, despite increased 3rd quarter demand. Shocking, I know. From that nugget of news follows several dozen stories around the web dissecting and analyzing, predicting, speculating and well… I suppose mocking.
More surprising than the overall decline in revenue is this tidbit… Law firms that cater heavily to financial services clients are – wait for it – seeing larger revenue declines than most.
Check back tomorrow for our exclusive report on this years unexpectedly high number of dogs biting mailmen.