Report: Law firm revenue is rising

Plus: How to create the best legal content for your firm

Raise The Bar

Nov 14, 2024 • 4 min read

A new report on law firm financial data finds that profitability is up – nearing the record-highs from 2021’s transactional boom. Even better news? Unlike the pandemic era, firm profits are driven by growth across many practice areas. Plus: Learn about this Florida attorney who fleeced Miami clients and disappeared.

In today's newsletter:

Firm profits up, growth over multiple practice areas
Creating content to market your practice
Can AI predict whether a case will settle?
The reasons that it takes two to mentor

Can’t get to the studio? Lawyers often have busy schedules and sit at desks for long periods of time, a recipe for health issues if we’re not careful. Online yoga can help.

Not voted off the island. Survivor alum becomes Washington’s first Black attorney general.

A class we wish we had taken. Actress Issa Rae is the latest celeb to be featured in Georgia State University College of Law Prof. Moraima “Mo” Ivory’s “Legal Life of…” course.

Curious and kind. What we can learn from kids about navigating cultural differences.

Honoring veterans. How a law school clinic saved a veteran’s support dog.

Law firm profitability at near-record levels

According to the Thomson Reuters Institute’s Law Firm Financial Index report, law firm profitability is at its second-highest since the inception of the index 15 years ago. The index, which is based on data from 195 firms in the U.S. and major international markets, shows profitability in the third quarter of 2024 is behind only the pandemic-era transactional boom of early 2021. Year-over-year demand increased in practice areas, including litigation, real estate and labor and employment, but declined slightly for intellectual property. Compared with 2021 growth, an ABA Journal article on the report noted, “the growth that [firms] are experiencing now is more sustainable because it reaches so many practice areas.” (ABA Journal)

Yes, lawyers, you can be content creators

Even when they recognize the need for quality law firm marketing content, lawyers don’t often think of themselves as “content creators.” Steve Fretzin of the BE THAT LAWYER podcast writes for Above the Law that attorneys need to shed the stigma many still have around content like thought leadership and social media. He tells lawyers to simply get started and not overthink the process. Then, once they’ve created content, it can be repurposed for additional reach, like turning a podcast into shorter clips for social media and using the material as a base for a blog post. “Do your best as a perfectionist attorney to avoid ‘analysis by paralysis’ when it comes to content creation,” Fretzin writes. “If you overthink it and never execute, no one wins.” (Above the Law)

What to do with all that data

By now, generative AI's ability to free lawyers up for sophisticated analytical work is a common theme. But it may be more difficult to envision the capabilities of new AI tools. In a recent LexisNexis and American Lawyer Media webinar, Jen Stringfield of LexisNexis says around 80% of all data is unstructured. “[M]oving up and beyond having a data lake and doing something with that information” will provide increased business intelligence. Stringfield gave examples of what AI could do, like predicting how likely a settlement is or how a certain court might rule. (LegalDive)

Build a career by building relationships

On the Litigation Radio podcast, Anne Marie Seibel of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings and Paula Hinton of Winston & Strawn recall how they seized opportunities and built relationships to grow their careers. While Hinton had been practicing longer when she met Seibel through bar association committee work, they note the value in mentoring relationships in which both people are able to learn from one another. “I think that’s one of the things that often is missed in mentoring is the importance of mentoring up and down. … [T]he mentoring relationship works best if it is two ways because you’re learning things from each other constantly,” says Seibel. (Litigation Radio podcast)

Thank you for reading Raise The Bar.

Every Thursday, you'll hear from our team about the most pressing issues facing legal practices today. We'll also try to include some quick-hit reads that touch on interesting cases and precedents being set worldwide.

Have anything you'd like us to cover? Send an email raisethebar@mynewsletter.co

Written by Suzi Morales. Edited by Katie Parsons.