Very useful piece in the National Law Journal (via a link on the law.com website) about the current state of litigation work.
Highlights are:
– litigation work has not picked up in the way it did during the last downturn (which is what many expected)
– on the positive side, it generally has not decreased in the way business in other practice areas have
– more specifically, intellectual property litigation, is off by about 8% according to a survey of Frotune 1000 legal departments conducted by BTI Consulting, but bankruptcy and employment litigation has increased
– part of the reason work has not increased is a mind-set among general counsel at cash-strapped companies that the company cannot afford litigation and its associated risks
– another reason that litigation work has not increased is that it has gotten more expensive as the costs of e-discovery have risen
– experts predict that litigation work will increase during the second half of 2009 as the economy is expected to stabilze.
Read the whole thing here.