Employers

Law firms are on track to post “one of the strongest years we see” in 2024, according to a report this week, after notching demand and productivity growth as well as double-digit revenue growth during the first six months of the year.

The largest firms in the biggest cities have been “picking their heads up” again on the lateral market, and they are seeing opportunities in corporate, finance, white-collar and investment management and funds work.

Attorney headcounts at the 500 largest law firms in the United States continued to grow in 2023, though growth rates subsided to pre-pandemic levels after accelerating in 2022. 

Associate attrition rates and hiring levels at law firms fell for the second year in a row in 2023, according to a recent report by the NALP Foundation.

As far as acronyms go, “PPL” doesn’t have the same recognition as some others in the law firm financial vernacular. And as a barometer of firm performance, profits per lawyer—a firm’s net income divided by its attorney headcount in full-time-equivalents–also doesn’t get the most attention. But should that change?

Big Law recruiters Johnson Downie and Lippman Jungers have merged. These search firms jointly announced in early March, combining recruiting networks in New York, California and Texas for a 20-recruiter national outfit that seeks to become the Am Law 20’s top headhunter.

In the larger sense, attorney growth across the legal field all looked the same in 2023 as it did the year prior, with law firms increasing full-time equivalent lawyers by an average of about 3.3% each year.

After years of getting poached by hungry Big Law firms looking to keep up with the high demand in capital markets and M&A practices, midsize firms are now in a position to settle the score.

When Major, Lindsey & Africa surveyed almost 300 Big Law associates about what their firms were doing to keep them and what firms could do better, the national recruiting firm found indicators of associate discontent that didn’t exactly match the market-induced slowdown in lateral movement for deal-focused lawyers.

When law firms discuss adapting to changing business environments, they are often focused on external environments such as the bigger market for legal services and the regulatory landscape as a whole. However, the next time people are back in the office, take a second to stop and look around, and they may also notice the changing shape of tomorrow’s workforce.