The 100 largest US law firms grossed a record $179 billion in 2025, and most of the growth came from charging more per hour, not from more hours. Fourteen leaders on our list are spending that windfall to change how the work gets done, before AI could shrink the hours they bill. Kirkland & Ellis and Morgan & Morgan alone have committed $1.5 billion to building their own AI.
The short version
Big Law is a partnership business that sells hours. Lawyers own the firms, an elected chair runs them, and about 90% of legal dollars still flow through hourly billing. The top 100 firms take in about $179 billion a year. More
Profits are at records because prices are rising. Billing rates grew about 7% a year in 2025 and 2026, more than twice as fast as hours worked, and the average equity partner at a top-100 firm earned $3.59 million. More
Five changes mark the innovators: building their own AI, changing the shape of the firm, retraining junior lawyers, merging for scale, and slow pressure on the billable hour. More
Fourteen law firm leaders on our list are already making these changes, and four more outside it are making similar moves. Each profile ends with a question to ask. More
Clients' own legal teams decide who gets the work. Rankings, recruiters, funders, insurers, and, for injury firms, advertisers sit between a firm and its clients, and the firm pays most of them. More
Leaders say firm, clients, and matters, and the chair rarely decides alone. AI pricing and junior-lawyer training make better openers than outside capital or politics. More
How the business works
Partners own the firms and clients pay by the hour
The US had 1,374,720 lawyers in 2025, the first increase since 2020. ABA via TaxProf Legal services added $424 billion to the US economy that year, by the government's measure. FRED Most of the money is concentrated at the top. The 100 largest firms by revenue, the Am Law 100, grossed $178.95 billion in 2025, up 13%. National Law Review The next 100 grossed $29.4 billion. Original Jurisdiction Kirkland & Ellis, the largest, took in $10.6 billion on its own. Above the Law
The firms on our list run differently from a corporate law department or a legal tech company. The table shows the main types, because outsiders often lump them together.
Type of firm
Typical size
How it charges
Who the clients are
Solo and small firms
1 to 20 lawyers; most firms
Hourly at lower rates, flat fees, some contingency
Individuals and small businesses
Regional and midsize firms
20 to about 300 lawyers
Hourly at mid-market rates
Mid-sized companies, insurers, local governments
National and global firms (Am Law 200)
About 150 to more than 3,000 lawyers
Hourly, with some fixed and capped fees; top partners bill $2,000 to $4,000 an hour
Large companies, private equity firms, banks
Plaintiff and injury firms
Boutiques to Morgan & Morgan, the largest
A share of what the client wins (contingency), and heavy advertising
Injured people and groups of claimants
Specialist firms
Fragomen (immigration) and Fisher Phillips (labor) are large examples
Flat fees and volume pricing for immigration; hourly for labor work
Employers
Alternative providers and Big Four law
Axiom, UnitedLex, KPMG Law US
Managed services, subscriptions, volume pricing
Corporate legal departments and law firms
Rates from court filings reported by the ABA Journal: Quinn Emanuel partners billed $1,860 to $3,000 an hour in 2025.
Partners own the firm and elect the leader
Equity partners own a law firm and share its profits. A rule in almost every state, Rule 5.4 of the American Bar Association's model rules, bars anyone who isn't a lawyer from owning a firm or sharing its fees. DLA Piper So there are no outside shareholders, and the partners elect the leader (called chair, managing partner, or CEO), who usually still practices law.
Many partners at the largest firms are now non-equity partners: they hold the title but take a salary and bonus instead of a share of profits. In the second quarter of 2026, hours worked by non-equity partners rose 6.0% while equity partners' hours fell 1.2%. Thomson Reuters Pay has also spread out. Above the Law reports top rainmakers, the partners who bring in the most business, can now earn up to $40 million, and that pure lockstep pay by seniority is "nearly extinct in Biglaw." Above the Law
A few states now let outsiders own law firms
Arizona dropped its version of Rule 5.4 and licenses firms with non-lawyer owners, called alternative business structures (ABS). It had licensed about 120 by 2025. Legal Futures In February 2025 it approved KPMG Law US, the first Big Four accounting firm licensed to practice law in the US. LawNext Elsewhere, private equity firms invest through management services organizations (MSOs): the investor owns a company that runs the firm's back office for a fee, while lawyers keep owning the firm itself. DLA Piper
The economics in 2026
Big Law earns record profits by raising its rates
$179BAm Law 100 gross revenue in 2025, up 13%source
$3.59Maverage profit per equity partner at those firms, up 14%source
7.1%growth in hourly rates, second quarter of 2026source
90%of legal dollars still billed by the hoursource
Notable change
Rising rates, more than hours, now drive the growth
From 2017 to 2019, rates rose 3% to 4% a year. Since 2023 they have risen 6% to 7% a year, while hours worked grew 0% to 4%. Wells Fargo found revenue at large firms up 12.4% in the first half of 2026. ABA Journal Thomson Reuters warns that clients are moving work from the most expensive firms to cheaper ones. Thomson Reuters
So what: Ask a leader how long clients will keep paying 7% more each year, and what the firm is building for the day they stop.
Thomson Reuters tracks hours and rates at large firms each quarter. Rates have risen every quarter in this series, and the gap between rates and hours widened after 2022.
Firms now raise rates about 7% a year while hours grow 0% to 4%
So what: Before the pandemic, rates rose about 3% a year. Since 2023 they have risen more than twice that, while the hours firms bill barely grew. Record profits rest on clients accepting higher prices, and AI puts that acceptance in question.
Worked rates (price per hour)Demand (hours worked)
Year-over-year growth each quarter, compiled from 33 Thomson Reuters quarterly reports (the Peer Monitor Index to 2021, the Law Firm Financial Index from 2022) and, for four quarters, news coverage of them. Gaps are quarters without a release we could check. Hover for each quarter; click or tap for details and the source.Show as a table
Am Law 100 profit per equity partner grew 2.3 times in a decade, ahead of revenue at 2.2 times
So what: Profit per equity partner grew faster than revenue, partly because firms moved many partners onto salary and out of the equity count. The people you'll meet have run their firms through a decade of record revenue, and they may defend the hourly model while they change it.
Gross revenue, all 100 firms (billions)
Average profit per equity partner (millions)
Fiscal years, compiled from news coverage of each year's Am Law 100 ranking (published the following spring), mostly Above the Law, not from The American Lawyer's own tables. We found no 2017 totals in a source we could check, so that year shows n/a. Sources are in the table.Show as a table
Costs are rising almost as fast as rates. Direct expenses, mostly pay, rose 8.3% and technology spending rose 11.6% in the second quarter of 2026. Thomson Reuters First-year associate pay at the top firms moved to $235,000 in July 2026. Above the Law
Clients are paying more slowly. Unbilled and unpaid work at large firms rose 17.7% in the first half of 2026. Wells Fargo: "This was a marked change from this time last year when inventories grew in line with collections." ABA Journal
Clients plan to send less work outside. Only 37% of corporate legal departments expect to spend more on outside counsel, down from 58% a year earlier, in the 2026 survey of CLOC (the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium), the legal operations association. CLOC
What is changing
Law firms change how the work gets done in five ways, starting with who builds the AI
The biggest shift is who builds the AI. Most large firms license the same tools, such as Harvey, which says it serves most of the Am Law 100. PYMNTS A few now spend hundreds of millions to build their own, so the firm's knowledge becomes software its rivals can't buy. Six leaders on our list have moved this way.
From 2023 to 2026, the firms changing most are doing one or more of five things. The first three have the most money behind them.
1. Building their own AI
Kirkland & Ellis set aside about $500 million to build its own AI platform. Lawyer Monthly Morgan & Morgan committed $1 billion over ten years and plans to offer its MX2 platform to other firms from the end of 2027. Morgan & Morgan Smaller budgets go to directors of AI development and firm-built tools on top of licensed models.
Licensing is still the norm. Latham & Watkins and Jackson Lewis rolled out Harvey to every lawyer. Latham Jackson Lewis
2. Changing the shape of the firm
Firms are starting companies beside the partnership: Cooley set up its own AI company, and Fragomen co-owns a digital identity venture. Wilson Sonsini built a software company, SixFifty, in 2019 and sold it in 2025. Artificial Lawyer Outside capital is arriving through MSOs, mostly at injury firms. Holland & Knight, which advises on these deals, says as many as 70 are in the pipeline. Holland & Knight
McDermott Will & Schulte said in late 2025 it was fielding interest from investors, the first top-20 firm to say so. Bloomberg Law Several states are pushing back: Tennessee's supreme court declined to loosen its ownership rule on October 2, 2026. Holland & Knight
3. Retraining lawyers as AI takes junior work
First-pass review and research taught junior lawyers the job, but AI now does that work first. Ropes & Gray lets first-years count up to 400 of their 1,900 target hours toward AI training. Legal Cheek Polsinelli went the other way: no billable credit, and its chair expects lawyers to learn on their own time. Bloomberg Law
Entry-level hiring at firms with more than 500 lawyers fell 7.5% for the class of 2025, the first drop since 2014. Above the Law Thomson Reuters' coverage of Legalweek 2026 named the associate, not the billable hour, as the industry's new "existential crisis." Thomson Reuters
4. Merging for scale and a bigger technology budget
Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader combined on July 1, 2026, in what they call the largest law firm merger in history. PR Newswire The consultancy Fairfax Associates counted 59 completed mergers in 2025 and 58 through the third quarter of 2026. Fairfax JD Journal A bigger firm spreads AI and technology costs over more revenue.
5. Slow pressure on the billable hour
71% of in-house lawyers expect firms to change pricing because of AI, but only 28% of firms have. Thomson Reuters About 72% of firms offer some alternative fee, yet no Am Law 100 firm has dropped hourly billing firmwide. Best Law Firms Injury firms, paid on contingency, keep every hour AI saves: EvenUp says 2,000-plus firms use its AI to draft demand letters. LawNext
Two smaller moves have fewer firms behind them. Baker McKenzie cut about 600 to 1,000 business services jobs in February 2026 as it rebuilt work around AI. Legal Cheek Orrick's lower-cost center in Wheeling, West Virginia, set up for document review, now runs analytics and AI. Orrick
The innovators
Fourteen law firm leaders on our list are rebuilding how their firms work
Fourteen law firm leaders are among The Originals. Each was elected or hired to run a firm owned by its partners, or founded it, and each has made a dated, costly change to how the work is done. The highest scorers are Miguel Zaldivar (8.1), John Morgan (7.2), Jamie Lawless (7.1), and Jon Ballis (7.0).
22 of these 25 dated moves came in 2023 or later, after generative AI arrived
So what: Most of these changes are less than three years old, so few firms know yet what works. Asking what a leader would do differently, now that the first results are in, is a natural way to open a conversation.
Building their own AIChanging the shape of the firmRetraining lawyers for AI-era work
Each dot is one costly change to how the work is done. Click a dot for a short summary and a link to the story.Show as a table
Chairman, Kirkland & Ellis · Chicago; partner-owned; the largest US firm by revenue ($10.6 billion in 2025), with more than 7,000 staff; chairman since 2020
Jon is spending about $500 million to build Kirkland's own AI platform from its lawyers' knowledge rather than rely on tools every rival can license. He has said widely available AI raises the floor for every firm, and Kirkland isn't hired for the floor.
Founder, Morgan & Morgan · Orlando, Florida; founder-owned; the largest US plaintiff firm
John is rebuilding the largest US plaintiff firm on its own AI platform, MX2, after spending about $300 million on technology since 2021. In September 2026 he committed $1 billion more over ten years and said other firms can use MX2 by invitation from the end of 2027.
“The law firms that survive and lead will be the ones that don't just license an AI tool, but whose attorneys inform the AI models with their own knowledge and experience.” source
Ask aboutWhat selling MX2 to other firms changes about what Morgan & Morgan is: a law firm, a software company, or both.
Chairman and CEO, Akerman · Miami; partner-owned Am Law 100 firm with more than 700 lawyers; chairman since 2020
Scott hired a Director of AI Development in September 2026 to write custom AI software when commercial tools can't meet the firm's needs. The hire completes a three-person AI leadership team.
“We are not simply adopting AI tools -- we are enhancing our internal expertise to manage our hybrid strategy: when to buy, when to build, when to combine the two.” source
Ask aboutHow Akerman decides when to build instead of buy, and which build has paid off so far.
Chair, Troutman Pepper Locke · Atlanta; partner-owned; about 3,000 people after the January 2025 merger with Locke Lord; $1.85 billion revenue in 2025
Tom runs the 1,600-lawyer firm on its own AI assistant, Athena, first released in 2023, and keeps folding new tools into it instead of buying them lawyer by lawyer. The firm says 85% of its people use Athena, and it used Athena to run the merger integration.
“Now at our size we can be a little more experimental and make sure we're trying to stay up with our peers,” source
Ask aboutWhat being bigger after the merger let the firm try with Athena that neither firm could have done alone.
Chair, Ballard Spahr · Philadelphia; partner-owned, more than 750 lawyers in 19 offices; chair since 2024, re-elected to 2029
Peter formed an AI task force as chair-elect in 2023, and in 2025 the firm released Ask Ellis, its own suite of AI tools. In August 2026 it rolled out a litigation AI agent across all litigation work, reaching into how matters are staffed and priced.
“Ballard Spahr's proud and distinguished history stands as the foundation as we go beyond to lead the way into an exciting future for our clients, where technology helps create better companies and better communities,” source
Ask aboutHow the litigation agent has changed the way Ballard staffs and prices a case.
Chair, BakerHostetler · Cleveland; partner-owned, more than 1,000 lawyers and about 2,500 staff; revenue above $1.1 billion in 2025
Paul launched the Practice Intelligence Center in 2026, an internal platform that ties the firm's data, legal knowledge, and AI workflows together, starting with a research tool built with Clio. BakerHostetler was an early AI adopter, licensing the IBM Watson-based ROSS in 2016.
“Practice Intelligence Center represents a long-term investment in how we connect information, support our attorneys and deliver value to clients.” source
Ask aboutWhich of the firm's own data turned out to be most valuable once it was connected.
CEO, Cooley · Palo Alto, California; partner-owned, more than 3,300 staff and 1,400 lawyers; CEO since 2024
Rachel argues that the law firm model built on time and scale won't last if firms only use AI to work faster. She set up Cooley AI, a firm-owned AI company, whose first product, GO Public, helps companies prepare to go public and was built with OpenAI in 2026.
“Established law firms must continue to run successful businesses built on today's structures while architecting for a tomorrow that is already here,” source
Ask aboutWhat Cooley AI is allowed to do that the law firm can't, and how partners share in it.
Co-Chair, Fragomen · New York; partner-owned immigration firm with about 5,000 staff; co-chair since 2023
Lance has pushed the immigration firm into businesses beside its legal work. Fragomen bought the software startup SimpleCitizen in 2020 to form Fragomen Technologies, and in 2026 it launched a digital identity joint venture with SICPA, a Swiss security printing company.
“Fragomen has been investing in digital identity innovation and technology platforms designed to reduce friction across global mobility and compliance processes,” source
Ask aboutWhich parts of immigration work he sees becoming software, and which stay with lawyers.
Chief Executive, Husch Blackwell · Kansas City and St. Louis; partner-owned, nearly 2,000 lawyers and staff; chief executive since 2024
Jamie is a rare non-lawyer chief executive of a large firm, and works from The Link, the firm's virtual office and now its largest office. In 2026 he opened a Transformation Office that joins innovation, data science, and AI under one leader, and rolled out Legora's AI to every lawyer.
“As our firm continues to grow, we must ensure our operating model scales with us so we can achieve those goals.” source
Ask aboutWhat a chief executive who isn't a lawyer can change in a partnership that an elected partner can't.
CEO, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader · Washington, DC; partner-owned, about 3,100 lawyers after the July 2026 merger; elected CEO
Miguel led the combination of Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader, which took effect on July 1, 2026, and which the firms call the largest law firm merger in history. The firm says the scale serves clients across the G20 and funds a bigger technology and AI budget.
“We are creating a firm like no other, with the expertise to advise clients on their most complex work across the G20,” source
Ask aboutWhat the merged firm can now build or buy in technology that neither firm could afford alone.
Chair, Ropes & Gray · Boston; partner-owned, about 1,500 lawyers and $3.7 billion revenue in 2025; chair since 2020
Julie leads the firm that lets first-year associates count up to 400 of their 1,900 target hours toward AI training, a policy Ropes & Gray widened in October 2026 to 100 hours for every associate. In 2026 the firm also hired its first chief of AI strategy.
“The AI revolution demands bold leadership and innovative thinking.” source
Ask aboutWhat the first associates trained this way can do that earlier classes couldn't.
Global Managing Partner, Reed Smith · Pittsburgh; partner-owned, about 1,500 lawyers; managing partner since 2023, re-elected to 2029
Casey put more than 750 lawyers and staff through AI certification by 2025 and in 2026 sent partners to an AI leadership program at Cornell Tech. The firm also launched Reed Smith Legal Solutions, which combines people, process, and technology for clients.
“Reed Smith Legal Solutions brings together the people, processes, and technology needed to deliver legal services in a way that is efficient, predictable, and better aligned with how clients operate today.” source
Ask aboutWhat partners came back from Cornell wanting to change first.
Chairman and CEO, Orrick · San Francisco; partner-owned, about 3,200 staff; chairman since 2013
Mitch turned Orrick's lower-cost center in Wheeling, West Virginia, into its hub for analytics and new roles in 2019, and started a fund for legal tech startups in 2018. In 2026 the firm won Legalweek awards for training lawyers on generative AI and for cutting e-discovery review time.
“Our Wheeling team has been at the center of our focus on transforming the legal services delivery model,” source
Ask aboutWhich jobs in Wheeling didn't exist five years ago, and who does them.
Chairman and Managing Partner, Fisher Phillips · Atlanta; partner-owned labor and employment firm with more than 675 lawyers in the US and Mexico
John put generative AI into the firm's core legal work in 2023 and hired its first Director of AI in 2025 to build the firm's own tools and run training across the firm. Over the same years the firm more than doubled its lawyers and revenue.
“this is a pivotal moment for our firm and a key step in our technology evolution.” source
Ask aboutHow the firm trains a lawyer to check AI output on work they never did by hand.
Four leaders outside the list are making similar moves
These leaders aren't on the list. Each has made a change worth asking about.
Kevin Lauri
Firm Chair, Jackson Lewis · Shareholder-owned labor and employment firm, more than 1,100 lawyers in 60-plus offices
Kevin rolled out Harvey's AI to every lawyer in August 2026.
“As a leader in labor and employment law, we see AI as an opportunity to build on that strength,” source
Ask aboutWhat AI changes about the high-volume employment work his firm is known for.
Chase Simmons
Chair, Polsinelli · Kansas City; partner-owned national firm
Chase expects every lawyer to become fluent in AI in 2026, without the billable-hour credit some rivals give for learning it.
“They need to be very, very good at utilizing these tools and investing in themselves,” source
Ask aboutWhy he chose not to give billable credit for AI training, and what he'd watch to know it worked.
Ira Coleman
Chairman, McDermott Will & Schulte · Chicago; partner-owned, about 1,750 lawyers after the August 2025 merger with Schulte Roth & Zabel
Ira said in late 2025 that the firm was fielding interest from outside investors in a management company, the first top-20 firm to say so publicly.
“We are constantly approached and we always listen to new ideas.” source
Ask aboutWhat partners would want protected if an outside investor owned the firm's back office.
Doug Clark
Managing Partner, Wilson Sonsini · Palo Alto, California; partner-owned; $1.4 billion revenue in 2025
Doug built a software company inside the firm, SixFifty, in 2019, and the firm sold it in July 2025. Few firm leaders have built, proved, and sold a technology business. Artificial Lawyer
Ask aboutWhat selling SixFifty taught the firm about which technology to own and which to let go.
The wider field
Global firms and AI vendors set the pace firm leaders react to
A few of the largest firms and fast-growing vendors shape what the leaders above can do. They set the going price for AI tools and the norms for pay and staffing.
Large firms and new competitors
Latham & Watkins The second-largest US firm by revenue, it rolled out Harvey to every lawyer in August 2025.
Baker McKenzie A global firm too large for our list, it cut about 600 to 1,000 business services jobs in February 2026 as it reorganized work around AI.
KPMG Law US It became the first Big Four law practice licensed in the US, through Arizona in February 2025. It can't do legal work for KPMG audit clients.
Companies selling the tools
Harvey Raised $200 million at an $11 billion valuation in March 2026 and says it serves more than 1,300 customers, including most of the Am Law 100.
Clio Practice software for smaller firms, valued at $5 billion; it bought the legal research company vLex for $1 billion in 2025.
EvenUp AI that drafts demand letters for injury firms, valued at more than $2 billion; it says 2,000-plus firms use it.
How clients find a firm
Firms pay most of the channels that bring them clients
Notable change
Corporate clients are shrinking their lists of firms
Legal departments are cutting how much they plan to spend outside: only 37% expect to spend more on outside counsel, down from 58% a year earlier. CLOC Thomson Reuters advises them to consolidate onto fewer firms in exchange for volume discounts. Thomson Reuters
So what: Ask a leader which clients have cut their list of firms, and what the firms that stayed on did differently.
Law has two different funnels. A company's legal department, often run by a legal operations team, picks firms for a list (called a panel) and sends work by request for proposal. An injured person usually finds a firm through advertising, search, or a referral from another lawyer. Around both funnels sit rankings, recruiters, funders, and insurers, and the firm pays most of them.
25%of a partner's first-year pay, the usual fee to a lateral recruitersource
$10.8K+for a US firm profile on Chambers, the main ranking; some cost more than $30,000source
$2.5Bspent on legal advertising in 2024, up 39% since 2020source
$2.3Bin new litigation funding commitments in 2024source
Firms pay four of the six channels that bring them work
So what: In the corporate funnel the client's own legal team decides, and firms pay to be seen, to hire partners with clients, and in discounts. In the injury funnel firms pay for attention up front. Ask a leader how much new work comes from relationships the firm already has: the answer shows how much of its growth it controls.
The firm pays the channelThe firm pays no fee, but may give up rates or a share of the result
ClientA company's legal department, an insurer, or an injured person
→
The client's own legal team (panels and requests for proposal)No fee from the firm
Legal operations teams and procurement at large companies; CLOC is their association
Pick a short list of approved firms, send work by request for proposal, and enforce billing rules through e-billing systems.
No fee, but discounts for volume, and some e-billing vendors charge the firm a share of each bill. Thomson Reuters
Rankings and directoriesFirm pays
Chambers and Partners (owned by Abry Partners), Legal 500, Best Lawyers
Rank firms and lawyers after interviewing clients; general counsel use the rankings to build shortlists.
Free to submit; US firm profiles cost about $10,800 to more than $30,000. Bloomberg Law
Lateral recruitersFirm pays
Major, Lindsey & Africa and other legal search firms
Move partners, and the clients who follow them, from one firm to another.
Insurers and litigation fundersNo fee from the firm
Insurers' defense panels; funders such as Burford Capital
Insurers send defense work to approved firms at negotiated rates. Funders pay a case's costs and help choose the firm.
No fee; insurer rates of about $225 to $250 an hour, and funders take a share of any win. Buchalter
Advertising and searchFirm pays
TV, billboards, Google Local Services Ads, lead sellers
Reach injured people directly; the biggest injury firms are the biggest advertisers.
More than $2.5 billion across the industry in 2024. Insurance Journal
Lawyer directories and marketplacesFirm pays
Martindale-Avvo, FindLaw, and Nolo, all owned by Internet Brands
List lawyers for people searching online and sell firms profiles, ads, and websites.
Firms pay for profiles, ads, and marketing services. Thomson Reuters
→
Law firmThe firm that gets the matter
The corporate funnel (first four rows) and the injury funnel (last two) work differently. Fee levels are the latest published figures; each links to its source.Show as a table
Channel
Examples
Does the firm pay?
What it costs the firm
Source
The client's own legal team (panels and requests for proposal)
Legal operations teams and procurement at large companies; CLOC is their association
No
No fee, but discounts for volume, and some e-billing vendors charge the firm a share of each bill
Corporate clients choose firms through their own legal teams
There's no referral fee in the corporate funnel. Instead, firms pay in rate discounts and in following each client's outside counsel guidelines: rules on staffing, rates, and expenses, enforced through e-billing systems that check every invoice. About half of e-billing vendors charge the firm a fee to use their system, often a percentage of each bill. Thomson Reuters Insurers send defense work to panel firms at negotiated rates; one California firm puts them at about $225 to $250 an hour. Buchalter
Rankings shape the shortlist. Chambers and Partners, owned by the private equity firm Abry Partners, says it interviews or surveys more than 330,000 buyers of legal services a year. Chambers Submissions are free, but firms pay for profiles and ads, and Bloomberg Law reported in 2024 that a sales proposal said a profile could help "secure the best possible ranking." Chambers' CEO says paying doesn't affect rankings. Bloomberg Law
Lateral recruiters move partners and their clients between firms. The hiring firm pays, usually 25% of the partner's first-year pay. BCG Attorney Search With average equity partner pay at $1.9 million in 2024, one placement can cost close to $500,000. ABA Journal Partner moves at the 200 largest firms reached 3,009 in 2025, a five-year high. Firm Prospects
Funders bring capital and pick the cases
Litigation funders pay a case's costs in exchange for a share of any win, and they vet the firm as well as the case. Funders committed $2.3 billion in new money in 2024, and 37% of it went to the largest firms. Bloomberg Law Burford Capital, the largest funder, reported new commitments up 39% in 2025. Burford Its CEO, Christopher Bogart, now argues that law firms themselves could take outside investment. Semafor
Injury firms pay for attention
Injury firms buy their clients' attention up front. Legal advertisers spent more than $2.5 billion on 26.9 million ads in 2024, according to the American Tort Reform Association, which campaigns against this advertising. Insurance Journal Leads from Google's Local Services Ads cost injury firms about $140 to $512 each, according to marketing firms that sell these services. GrowLaw One owner now controls the main lawyer directories: Internet Brands, backed by the investment firm KKR, owns Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo, and Nolo, and bought FindLaw from Thomson Reuters in December 2024. Thomson Reuters
Some firms are building their own pipelines
Morgan & Morgan advertises more than any other US firm. It was the top legal advertiser in 2024 and is building its own AI for case work. Billboard Insider Morgan & Morgan
Investors now fund injury firms' marketing. Private equity firms are buying stakes in management companies that run injury firms' advertising, intake, and technology. Bloomberg Law
States are tightening the rules on funders and investors
States are moving fastest on litigation funding and on investors' fees. North Carolina became the first state to ban commercial litigation funding outright in June 2026. Parker Poe
Christopher Bogart runs the largest funder. The four below him run the main ranking, the association of the clients' legal operations teams, and the two biggest platforms for smaller firms and consumers.
Christopher Bogart
CEO and co-founder, Burford Capital · New York; listed on the New York and London stock exchanges; co-founded 2009
Christopher built the largest litigation funder and now argues that law firms could take outside investment. He says Burford has worked with 97% of the Am Law 100.
“Today I'm leaving it to the next generation as a charitable act.” source
Ask aboutWhat would make a large law firm investable, and what partners would have to give up.
Tim Noble
CEO, Chambers and Partners · London; owned by the private equity firm Abry Partners; CEO since 2019
Tim is moving Chambers from rankings into data and intelligence about how clients buy legal services, and hired a US leader in 2025.
“The creation of these new roles reflects Chambers' continued evolution as a leading intelligence provider” source
Ask aboutWhat general counsel tell Chambers about how they build a shortlist.
Oyango Snell
President and CEO, CLOC · Nonprofit association of in-house legal operations professionals
Oyango leads the association of the in-house teams that pick and manage outside firms. Its 2026 institute drew about 2,400 people.
“Legal operations leaders aren't waiting for permission anymore.” source
Ask aboutWhen CLOC members cut their list of firms, what do the firms that survive do differently?
Jack Newton
CEO and co-founder, Clio · Private, valued at $5 billion; more than $500 million in annual recurring revenue
Jack runs the practice software used by hundreds of thousands of lawyers, mostly at smaller firms, and bought the research company vLex for $1 billion in 2025.
“the legal profession is being reshaped by AI faster than anything we've seen in our lifetime.” source
Chairman and CEO, LegalZoom · Listed on Nasdaq; CEO since July 2024
Jeff runs LegalZoom, the online legal services company that sells documents to small businesses and connects them with lawyers.
“Entrepreneurs have always thrived in uncertainty, that's the job description,” source
Ask aboutAs AI answers more small-business legal questions, which matters still need a lawyer?
Trade-offs
Six trade-offs divide the law firm leaders you'll meet
Most leaders on our list have picked a side on several of these. In our reading, asking which side they picked, and why, gets to their strategy faster than asking about trends.
1Build your own AI or license what everyone has
Kirkland is spending about $500 million on its own platform, and Morgan & Morgan $1 billion more. Lawyer Monthly Morgan & Morgan
Latham and Jackson Lewis standardized on Harvey across every lawyer. Latham Jackson Lewis
AskWhich part of your work is worth building, and which do you buy?
2Bill by the hour or price the result
About 90% of legal dollars still flow through hourly billing. Thomson Reuters
71% of in-house lawyers expect firms to change pricing because of AI. Thomson Reuters
AskWhen a task drops from 15 hours to two, who keeps the difference: the client, the firm, or the lawyer's training?
3Pay juniors to learn AI or expect them to learn it
Ropes & Gray counts up to 400 hours of a first-year's target toward AI training. Legal Cheek
Polsinelli gives no billable credit for learning AI. Bloomberg Law
AskHow do you train a lawyer to judge work they never did by hand?
4Stay lawyer-owned or take outside capital
Tennessee's supreme court kept its ban on non-lawyer ownership in October 2026. Holland & Knight
McDermott Will & Schulte said it was hearing from investors, and dozens of injury firms have sold stakes in management companies. Bloomberg Law Holland & Knight
AskWhen outside capital comes up among your partners, what matters most: control, culture, or cash?
5Grow by merging or grow by hiring partners
Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader merged into a firm of about 3,100 lawyers. PR Newswire
Partner moves between the largest firms hit a five-year high of 3,009 in 2025. Firm Prospects
AskWhat does a merger give you that hiring partners one by one doesn't?
6Equal pay for partners or pay for the biggest books
Lockstep firms such as Cravath and Paul Weiss added salaried partner tiers to stay close to the old model. Above the Law
Top rainmakers now earn up to $40 million, and consultants expect 10% to 30% of partners could be moved down the pay ladder. Above the Law
AskWhat makes a partner stay here that a bigger guarantee elsewhere doesn't buy?
Before a first conversation
Firm leaders want to talk about AI pricing and junior lawyers before anything else
In 2025 and 2026 surveys of firm leaders and their clients, the issues raised most often were, in rough order: AI and how to price it, the junior lawyer pipeline and pay, clients moving work to cheaper firms or in-house, keeping the partners they want, mergers, outside capital, and slow collections. In a survey of 73 firm leaders, 62% named technology and AI as their top issue. Legal Evolution Clients are pushing: 85% of firms in a survey by the legal software company Litera say clients are driving their AI investment. LawNext
The executive orders the White House issued against several firms in 2025 still divide the profession. Four firms sued and won in district court, and the government's appeal was argued in May 2026; others settled with pledges of pro bono work. UW-Madison Law Perkins Coie Each firm's stand is on the public record.
Seven mistakes mark an outsider
Assuming the chair decides alone. Firms are partnerships, and the leader is elected and answers to the partners. "I'd have to take that to the executive committee" is usually true, not a brush-off.
Saying company, customers, or CEO. Say the firm, clients, and matters, and use the leader's own title: chair, managing partner, or CEO.
Saying AI is already cutting revenue. Revenue at large firms rose 12.4% in the first half of 2026. The worry is about what comes next. ABA Journal
Announcing the end of the billable hour. Leaders have heard it for years, and 90% of legal dollars are still billed hourly. Ask how they price AI-assisted work instead.
Asking if they want to sell. Rule 5.4 bars outside ownership in almost every state. Ask about outside capital in general terms.
Treating partner as owner. Many partners at the largest firms are salaried non-equity partners, and profit per equity partner leaves them out.
Opening with the 2025 executive orders. Firms that settled and firms that sued may sit across the table from each other.
Ten questions get a firm leader talking about the work
Thomson Reuters found 71% of in-house lawyers expect firms to change pricing because of AI, but only 28% of firms have. Where does your firm sit, and what would make a client take a fixed fee for AI-assisted work?
When a due diligence task goes from 15 hours to two, who keeps that time: the client, the firm, or the associate's training?
Entry-level hiring at large firms fell for the first time since 2014. What size and shape do you expect your junior class to be in five years?
How do you train a fourth-year to judge work they never did by hand as a first-year?
Keeping the partners you want is the top economic issue in leader surveys. What makes a partner stay here that a bigger offer elsewhere doesn't buy?
CLOC says only 37% of legal departments plan to spend more on outside counsel. Which clients are pulling work in-house, and which are giving you more?
If you had a blank sheet, what would you change first in how a matter gets staffed?
Which part of your AI work did you build, and which did you buy? What decided it?
When outside capital comes up among your partners, what do they care about most: control, culture, or cash?
How many of your new matters come from relationships you already have, and how many come through rankings, recruiters, or panels?
Where they gather
Eight events bring these leaders together before August 2027
Legalweek draws the most large firm leaders and technologists. The Mass Torts Made Perfect and American Association for Justice (AAJ) meetings draw plaintiff firm founders. ILTACON, the International Legal Technology Association's conference, draws firms' technology chiefs.
