Survey: Economy & Profits Dismal, But My Firm Will Succeed, Managing Partners Say

Law firm managing partners are expressing record low confidence levels in the economy and prospects for the legal profession, according to survey results released today by Citi Private Bank.

On a scale of 0 to 200, confidence in the overall economy plunged to 38 in the fourth quarter of 2008 and confidence in the legal business environment dropped to 53, reports the Blog of Legal Times. Those record low results compare to scores of 69 and 78, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2007.

"Interestingly, Citi reports that despite their dismal overall projections, managing partners remain consistently more confident about the financial prospects at their own firms, claiming they can buck the trend," the BLT recounts.

And last year's numbers also reflected an increasingly gloomy outlook among managing partners for 2008, notes a Recorder article written a year ago about the Citi Private Bank survey that had just been released at that time.

"Overall confidence fell nearly 20 percent in 2007, dropping by larger amounts each quarter," the Recorder writes. "Managing partners' feelings on the economy as a whole—the survey's macroeconomic index--fell nearly 25 percent between the third and fourth quarter alone, and 40 percent over the course of the year, according to the poll."