Stats Of The Week: Biglaw Revenues Outpace The Fortune 500 And Pro Sports

Revenue growth for law firms from 2003-2013 compares favorably to that of Fortune 500 companies.

Earlier this week in San Diego, ATL attended the Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference. One particular panel discussion stood out: Spy vs. Spy: Law Firm CI vs. Legal Department Metrics and Intelligence (scroll down a bit at the link for details on the speakers and program.) Over the last decade, there has been a sort of “arms race” between law firms and corporations in the field of competitive intelligence. While firms have been focusing on CI for business development, their corporate legal department counterparts have been “countering by aggressively investing in CI in an effort to run their legal departments as businesses.”

To give some context to this competition, a chart was shared comparing relative 2003-2013 revenue growth for the Am Law 200, Fortune 500, and the three major U.S. pro sports leagues:

A couple takeaways from this chart:

1. Wow, baseball. (These growth numbers undermine to this narrative.)

2. However gloomy the market is for legal employment, law firms at the top of the food chain are doing well as businesses. By this measure, Biglaw is actually outperforming the clients it covets.

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