Featured Survey Results: Got Work? (Part Deux)

Last year, we asked you whether work was busy at your firms, and found that patent attorneys were particularly busy nationwide, while associates in real estate and structured finance were pretty slow in many markets. In last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, we revisited the topic, and asked which practice areas are hottest (or nottest) at your firm. We received about 550 responses.
Not surprisingly, real estate and structured finance remain slow, but the malaise appears to be spreading to other transactional practices as well. Nationally, sixteen percent of respondents said real estate was the slowest practice at their firm. Corporate and structured finance were declared the slowest practice groups by twelve percent each. Capital markets and M&A were next, with approximately eight and one-half percent each. (While law firms may be slowing, in-house positions in these practices abound.)
While deals are slowing down, disputes are speeding up. About seventeen percent of respondents said that commercial litigation was the busiest practice area in their firm, while another eleven percent said patent litigation was hottest. Bankruptcy was declared the busiest group by fourteen percent of respondents. Corporate, while slow at many firms, was still going strong according to five percent of respondents.
Check out some market by market results after the jump.


While the national trends hold true in most markets, there were a few differences from region to region (bearing in mind that we still have a pretty small sample size in some markets):
  • Commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and patent litigation were the hottest practices in Atlanta, with corporate, real estate, capital markets, antitrust and banking work looking pretty grim.
  • Patent litigation is booming in the Bay Area, with almost two fifths of respondents citing it as their firms’ hottest practice. Real estate and structured finance, not so much.
  • In Boston, patent prosecution and litigation remain popular, while commercial litigation, M&A, and real estate are still sluggish.
  • Almost a third of respondents in Chicago cited bankruptcy as the busiest practice at their firm, while commercial litigation, corporate, real estate, and structured finance remain slow.
  • In LA, most respondents said commercial litigation, patent litigation, or labor & employment work was busiest at their firms, while real estate and finance were slow.
  • Both bankruptcy and commercial litigation are heating up in several New York firms, with over a fifth of respondents citing each as the hottest practice area at their firms. Structured finance, however, is taking a beating, followed by real estate, corporate, capital markets, and M&A.
  • In Texas, roughly a quarter of respondents said commercial litigation was the busiest practice, followed by patent litigation, energy and tax. A fifth of respondents, however, declared commercial litigation the slowest practice, followed by M&A and corporate work. So, Texas litigators, please share the love — and sue one another.
  • Patent and commercial litigation practices were declared busy in Washington, DC, with real estate and capital markets groups a bit slow. Like commercial litigation in Texas, antitrust practices in DC ran both hot and cold in the responses.
Also, a quick update on clerkship bonuses and maternity leave. The clerkship bonus table (posted here, and mirrored here) has been updated again to reflect firmwide $50K bonuses at Arnold & Porter and Kaye Scholer, and the maternity leave table (posted here, and mirrored here) has been updated to reflect Proskauer’s upgrade to 18 weeks. Kudos to all three firms!
Please keep those e-mail tips coming.

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