How to Build a Solo Law Practice in 2026 (Field Guide) Norma Harris, LawFuel contributing editor Building a solo or small firm in 2026 is cheaper and more feasible than it has ever been, and the same three things still sink new practices: trust-accounting mistakes, running out of cash, and a marketing plan that amounts
So You Want to Hang Out Your Own Shingle – The 2026 Solo Law Firm Survival Guide Read More »
NQ Salaries Hit £150k in Latest Pay War Salvo Norma Harris The London salary wars continue with Macfarlanes bumping its newly qualified (NQ) base pay from £140,000 to £150,000. Effective 1 July, the £10k increase officially aligns the firm with the UK Magic Circle’s current baseline, cementing its status among the top tier of native
Macfarlanes Leapfrogs Transatlantic Rivals with Latest Salary Bump Read More »
The London legal market just got another massive jolt as US mega-firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett muscles further into City territory.
Simpson Thacher, a private equity titan, the elite New York-headquartered firm has officially launched its first-ever formal UK training contract, which they are backing it up with serious Wall Street cash showing – once again – how the big money US firms are reshaping the London legal scene.
The rise of “luxury lawyers” signals how seriously the world’s top brands now treat law as a core business function, not a back‑office cost. And ‘luxury lawyer’ are a growing sub-branch, well coiffed and dressed of course, in the legal universe. Luxury law sits at the intersection of fashion, beauty, hospitality, automotive, art and high‑end
Who Are the “Luxury Lawyers” Powering the Global Elite? Read More »
It took longer than anyone on r/biglaw thought possible, but the BigLaw salary scale has finally moved and, in news that will shock precisely nobody, Milbank is once again the firm doing the heavy lifting for everyone else’s associates. The firm has announced a new associate pay scale effective 1 July 2026, with raises ranging
Milbank Breaks The Freeze And BigLaw’s 2026 Pay War Is Back On Read More »
But Lawyers Shouldn’t Cancel Their Harvey Subscriptions Yet Norma Harris Anthropic has done something the legaltech market has been quietly demanding for years and made its AI play nicely with the tools lawyers already use. KEY TAKEAWAY: Anthropic has added 12 legal features to Claude — covering contract drafting, e-discovery, research and document management —
Anthropic’s Legal Plug-Ins Signal a New Era for Legaltech Read More »
Norma Harris The short answer: When AI cuts a doc review from 40 hours to 4, BigLaw does not lose 90% of the revenue — at least not yet. Firms are absorbing the productivity gain into higher effective rates, expanding scope, and pushing the saved hours onto more matters. Aggregate Am Law 100 revenue rose
From 40 Hours To 4: Is AI Forcing A $200 Billion Rewrite Of The BigLaw Billable Hour? Read More »
Anthropic’s Claude for Legal Puts BigLaw‑Grade AI on a Small Firm Budget Norma Harris Anthropic has finally taken the wraps off Claude for Legal – a suite of 12 practice‑area plugins, 20+ MCP connectors into mainstream legal systems, and deep Microsoft 365 integration – and it lands squarely in the workflows where lawyers actually live.
Claude for Legal: The AI Moment Small Firms Can’t Ignore Read More »
The U.S. law firm lateral market shows healthy expansion and also provides a strategic shift toward senior leverage and a surprising surge at smaller firms.
According to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) 2025 Survey of Law Firms on Lateral and 3L Hiring (released April 22, 2026), total lateral hiring volume rose 16.4% year-over-year among the 305 offices/firms reporting comparable data.
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BigLaw associates are earning more than ever yet they’re leaving faster than firms can replace them. Despite an 8.2% average compensation increase across U.S. law firms in 2025, associate attrition rates remain stubbornly high and, in some metrics, are climbing.
The human and financial toll is mounting, and the structural drivers in law firms go far deeper than salary. We took at look at some of the recent stats and surveys to identify whast is happening acccording to the people who should know these things.
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