The drumbeat of bad financial news continued for the legal industry Thursday, as yet another survey of large law firms showed demand for their services essentially flat through the first three-quarters of the year and revenue growth for 2012 likely to fall short of last year’s single-digit gains.
The Wells Fargo Private Bank Legal Specialty Group survey found that, on average, the 115 participating firms—a group that included 60 Am Law 100 firms, 40 Am Law Second Hundred firms, and 15 boutique firms—took in 3 percent more revenue during the first three quarters of the year than they did during the same nine-month period last year. Profits, meanwhile, were up just 1.5 percent. The findings were largely in line with a similar survey covering the first half of the year that Wells Fargo released in September.
