Biglaw Is Looking 'Pretty Tepid' When It Comes To 2023 Finances

The Q4 cash crunch is coming for Biglaw.

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

I think most firms may well come in around their budgets. But I don’t think there will be many setting the world on fire.

My gut tells me it’s going to be a pretty tepid year. [A] lot will depend on decisions made in the last quarter about hiring; whether firms will seriously adjust their quotas on hiring or offers going out, because that can certainly drive up your expense burden faster than just about anything in a law firm.

— Jim Jones, director of the Georgetown University Law Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession, in comments given to the American Lawyer, on Biglaw’s financial picture in Q4 amid economic uncertainty and industry analysts still painting year-end profitability pictures as “flat-ish” and “volatile.”


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.