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Summary: Am Law 100 law firms are seeing growth but not as promising as would have been hoped for when most have increased their numbers as well.
Wells Fargo Private Bank’s legal specialty group has released the findings from their survey. They found that Am Law 100 are seeing gross revenue up 4.1 percent whereas the Second Hundred are only seeing a growth up 2.65 percent.
However, demand has only increased by 1.7 percent for Am Law 100 firms and is mostly flat for the Second Hundred. This rate leads one to assume revenue growth is from rate increases instead of new work.
The executive summary of the report highlights “the question on most managing partners’ minds seems to be ‘whether the rate increases are sustainable’, when juxtaposed against flat demand at best.”
Firms in Florida and the Southeast saw the biggest revenue growth at 7 percent and 6 percent. For firms where profits per partner were over $2 million, revenue only increased by 2.1 percent.
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Law firms saw an increase in attorney numbers this year but the annual billable hours that lawyers worked for Am Law 100 firms was down by six hours. Second Hundred lawyers billed even less. This supports the findings by Altman Weil last year that firms are worried their partners are not busy enough.
There were a total of 125 law firms to participate in the report, 60 of which were Am Law 100 firms. Citi Private Bank’s law firm group published their survey earlier in the month, showing promising numbers.
Source: http://www.americanlawyer.com/home/id=1202736111757
Photo: trai.gov.in
