San Francisco’s Legal Business Doing Better Than Most Cities’

San Francisco’s legal business is holding up against the recession a lot better than other major cities’, according to first-quarter data collected from about 100 large firms by Hildebrandt Peer Monitor.   Nationwide, demand for legal services dipped 8 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the same period a year ago. Demand dropped 9.5 percent in New York City and 8 percent in Los Angeles. But in San Francisco, first-quarter demand dropped just 1 percent, according to billable hours reported by participating firms’ electronic accounting systems.

“It’s a very scary time for all. It’s also a very opportunistic time for many firms,” said Mark Medice, program director for Peer Monitor, an arm of consulting firm Hildebrandt International.

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