Summary: Managing partners at 54 law firms participated in the quarterly survey, showing moderate confidence in the legal industries financial prospects.
The Law Firm Group at Citi Private Bank’s quarterly evaluation found that a moderate amount of managing partners are confident in the financial prospects of the second quarter of 2015. The report evaluates the overall morale through attitudes on the economy and legal industry with numbers of metrics such as revenue, profits, and expenses.
A total of 54 law firms participated in the report, 39 of which were big law firms, 12 niche firms, and three from the U.K. Managing partners answer questions on a scale of 0-200. The questions range from lawyer hiring to discounting.
Managing partner confidence dropped eight points from the previous quarter to 111. Confidence in business conditions for the legal industry and firm revenue dropped five points each to 110 and 112. Even with the drop in points, they are still above 100, which Citi considers still positive.
The report showed that transactional practices are doing better than litigation. The trend of non-partner associates and cheaper associates are growing in numbers at firms. Law firms hire these associates at a low salary so that they can offer them to clients for a better price.
Another area that fell was the managing partners overall feel of the demand in the legal profession but it is still well over 100 at 143. An area that improved was in discounting, it raised three points to 78, which is well below the 100 level positive mark.
Source: https://bol.bna.com/survey-finds-middling-managing-partner-confidence/
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