Law firms, the big ones, saw a whopping 11.3% increase in revenue during the first quarter of 2025 compared to last year. Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group did a survey and found this out. The increased moolah is mostly because lawyers are charging more these days, with a 9.5% hike in their billing rates in the first quarter. Matt Anderson from Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group said, “Yup, those rates keep going up, and so do the revenues. Go figure!”
Demand for lawyer billable hours only went up by 1.7% in the first quarter. Anderson mentioned that this increase “didn’t quite hit the mark” but that law firms are still feeling pretty good about the rest of 2025. Expenses also went up by 9.9%, likely because firms hired more lawyers (3.4% increase) and professional staff (4.3% increase). Les Starck from Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group said that this basically means firms hired more attorneys than they actually needed. Whoopsie!
Not really sure why this matters, but more than 100 big firms responded to the survey, including 67 of the top-grossing firms and 38 of the Second Hundred firms. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like everyone is just trying to outdo each other in this legal money-making game. But hey, at least the lawyers are getting paid, right?
