Legal News

The Report on Lawyers and Jobs: Not Great, But Getting Better

By Ashby Jones

If there’s one lesson that’s been hammered home in the last two years, it’s this: the fate and fortunes of the legal industry are, for the most part, inextricably tied up with the economy at large.

It’s a seemingly obvious point, we know, but the degree to which the two mirror each other — or at least have recently — was driven home to us over the weekend. On Friday, you no doubt remember, the nationwide unemployment rate stayed steady, at 9.7 percent, with the U.S. economy shedding a mere 36,000 jobs in February.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal industry experienced a similar fate — with job losses, yes, but losses numbering far fewer than in recent months. The legal sector lost only 100 jobs in February, continuing a downward dip in losses. The sector lost 1,100 jobs in January, 2,100 in December, 2,900 in November, and 5,800 in October. In other words, while things aren’t exactly good, they’re getting better. Click here for Ross Todd’s story at the American Lawyer; here for more from Above the Law.

But as Todd reports, no reason to bust out the bubbly just yet:

Still, challenges remain for large law firms, as we recently reported. According to the 2010 Client Advisory released earlier this week by the consultants at Hildebrandt Baker Robbins and the Citi Private Bank division of Citigroup, Inc., 2009 was a terrible year for law firms, and, in some respects, “the worst year for the legal market in at least the past half century.” Looking ahead, the report predicts that law firm leaders must remain focused on further cutting costs, particularly those that “until now have been spared.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 08, 2010 (boomark / email).