Once again, the legal industry appears to be dominated by Eeyore. Every quarter there’s another market outlook survey, and every quarter law firm leaders express muted optimism. If they’re willing to admit the world is getting better, it’s getting better at a rate somewhere around 2 percent.
So it comes as absolutely no shock whatsoever that the latest Law Firm Leaders Confidence Index reveals that firms think things aren’t necessarily getting better and if they are, it’s going to be somewhere around 2 percent better.
How do they feel about the U.S. economy? Slightly worse than they did during the second half of 2017. How do they feel about the global economy? Slightly better than they did. What does that mean? Not much really. The majority of respondents thought both would be “the same.” Ho hum. At least zero respondents predict the climate to get “considerably worse.” That’s progress.
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Despite this lack of enthusiasm for the market, most respondents think they’re personally going to see an upswing. Fully 70 percent of respondents predict an uptick in demand even though the last several years of data consistently paint a grim picture for demand. Headcount is likely to see an increase too, with 61 percent of respondents predicting an increase in associate FTE of greater than 1 percent. Still, forecasting a mere 1 to 3 percent bump in associate hiring is hardly a sign of unbridled confidence.
So we’ll slog on through this year of blah.
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.