This isn’t good news when 64% of the managing partners at the AM Law 100 & 200 firms say they don’t see things getting better for quite a while yet..
Law Firm Managing Partners Pessimistic, Says Citi Survey
Brian Katkin writes for the Legal Times
With dissolutions, layoffs and salary freezes making headlines, when will law firms be able to thrive once again? Managing partners say not soon.
On Monday, Citi Private Bank Law Watch released its executive summary of its first quarter 2009 managing partner confidence index. Law firm managing partners’ confidence in the financial health of their firms continued declining, as client demand keeps shrinking and expenses keep growing.
According to the survey, the end to the tough times for firms is not coming any time soon. Of the roughly 120 managing partners surveyed from mostly Am Law 100 and Am Law 200 firms, 64 percent believe legal business will drop even more over the next six months. The survey says firms should not expect major profit growth over the next year, as profits, if there are any, will likely not exceed 5 percent. The majority of managing partners believe revenue will stay flat or decline.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429528706
and yet more jobs go – see the following stories
http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202429314178&And_the_Winner_Is___
http://legalpad.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/manatt-25-transitions-as-layoffs-continue.html
http://www.thelawyer.com/1000260.article
But one can always afford a bit of lobbying !
During Layoffs, Holland & Knight Expanded Lobbying Team
Last month we reported that Holland & Knight laid off 243 lawyers and staffers.
But it has now been revealed that during the same period, the firm took on more than a dozen lobbyists.
Rich Gold, head of the firm’s public policy and regulation practice, expanded the size his federal lobbying team to about 70, to help clients get their piece of the president’s economic stimulus package. The practice group has 240 clients, including 50 recently acquired ones.
