Lawyer Head Count Drops With Demand

2009 Law Firm Business Trends
Demand for Services	Expenses	Revenue
-4.1%	-5.6%	-3.4%
Source: 2010 Client Advisory, Citi Private Bank and Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, based on a survey of 193 U.S.-based firms

Everyone knows 2009 was tough. But just how tough? Overall, the total number of lawyers at the nation's 250 largest law firms declined by 4 percent. Meanwhile, the number of associates decreased by 8.7 percent.

Much of this shrinkage was due to a large drop in the demand for legal services. However, "mounting price pressures" also cut into the head count, according to a 2010 client advisory from Citi Private Bank, a business of Citigroup, and the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins consulting firm, which is part of Thomson Reuters. This year's recovery, according to the advisory, will be "quite gradual." Furthermore, the era when hourly billing rates rose between 6 percent and 8 percent each year - as they did for nearly a decade starting in 1998 - is now officially over, the report declares.

---