Andrew Maloney

"It's definitely a good time to be a law firm partner," said MLA's Louis Ramos, referring to a survey showing partners are relatively happy with their pay.

Jenny Durkan was mayor of Seattle from 2017 to 2021. Before that she led Quinn Emanuel's cyber practice and served as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington.

Some law firms have said they are interested in a combination with a larger firm partly "to have the scale necessary to properly invest in technology," said one merger consultant.

Some firms now make partner pay data less accessible. Opening up pay data can lead to "a lot of partner dissatisfaction and angst," one consultant said.

Ripple effects from Polsinelli's 47-lawyer group move this summer are still generating benefits for the firm on the lateral market.

The general winner, along with the winners of the specialty categories, will be announced Nov. 13 at The American Lawyer's Industry Awards.

Under a better deal market, law firm lateral movement in corporate practices, such as private equity, funds, M&A and capital markets, will likely pick up.

"It really is empowering from an associate's perspective, because typically we're put in situations engineered by partners," said Mayer Brown associate Sydni Eibschutz about a networking program.

"It looks like clear sailing for firms to outperform all but their profit heights of 2021” in 2024, said a new industry report Monday.

"Not only are we seeing lawyers busier, we're seeing them busier across a pretty broad cross-section of practices,” noted Citi's Gretta Rusanow.