According to an article by the National Law Journal, a new study projects growth in corporate legal spending of roughly 5 percent over the next six months, but corporate lawyers say that fixed legal budgets preclude most increases and that any higher legal spending that is tied to the economic crisis is temporary and unsustainable
The “BTI Mid-Year Spending Update and Outlook” study by Wellesley, Mass.-based legal consulting shop BTI Consulting Group anticipates that the upcoming growth spurt, in combination with an earlier steep decline, will result in an overall decrease in 2009 corporate legal spending of just 1.4 percent.
BTI data, which were released on Thursday, show that outside counsel spending dropped by an average of 6.7 percent in the first three months of 2009.
An upswing in legal spending on regulatory, compliance, employment, securities and bankruptcy matters will mostly compensate for the sharp declines in spending on corporate, securities, finance and intellectual property, according to the BTI results.
Regulatory work is expected to grow most quickly, by 5.8 percent, followed by an anticipated 2.6 percent upswing in bankruptcy and restructuring, a 2.1 percent expansion in securities and finance and an 0.7 percent increase in employment work.
“I wouldn’t want to present this as ‘Congratulations the recession is over,'” said BTI president Michael B. Rynowecer. “Even with the uptick, the market is still going to end up down. While there’s good news on the horizon, this isn’t the final chapter, it’s the interim chapter.”
Written on: 05/11/09 PDF Version