The Promising Future of the Legal Profession

An article in The American Lawyer paints an optimistic picture of the future of the legal profession, at least for the nation’s largest law firms. Based on various forecasting techniques, including historical performance, the article makes the following projections for the year 2025:

• A 1,000-lawyer firm will be considered midsize.
• Profits per partner will approach $20 million in some firms.
• Projected revenues of some firms will total nearly $23 billion.
• Firms will be larger, more complex and more geographically dispersed.

The author concludes that “the projections make it clear that U.S. corporate law firms of the future will be wealthier, larger and more international than they were in the past.” While this forecast is promising, only time will tell if the Am Law 100 will truly be a “land of enormous opportunity and wealth.”