Legal Market Stronger in San Francisco

As demand for legal work dropped 8 percent nationally for the first quarter of 2009, one legal market showed surprising resilience.

San Francisco saw only a 1 percent drop in demand for legal services and a 1 percent increase in total fees, the Recorder reports. The figures are based on billable hour reports provided by about 100 large firms to Hildebrandt Peer Monitor.

Other large cities didn’t fare as well. Demand for legal services in the first quarter was down 9.5 percent in New York and down 8 percent in Los Angeles.

The data also analyzed demand in different practice areas. The only areas of growth were bankruptcy, up 13 percent in the first quarter, and mergers and acquisitions, up 2 percent, according to the story. General corporate work dropped 14 percent and real estate work is 20 percent lower.