Annual rate increases at Am Law 100 firms continued to exceed 10% this January in rate increase notices that Big Law firms filed in ongoing corporate bankruptcies. Meanwhile, rate hikes at three Second Hundred law firms showed rate increases by less than 10% for most levels of attorney, although two firms issued bigger bumps for senior associates.
Data from Q4 2025 showed a dip in total law firm leasing as compared to Q4 2024. However, the broader figures indicate that the legal market is taking a large portion of New York’s total office market.
The average law firm delivered a profit bonanza through most of 2025. But the good times could begin to wane in 2026, say industry analysts in a new report, with warning lights in the form of monumental expense growth, unsteady realization and poor economic fundamentals.
Claims By Unit Owners Not Barred By “As Is” Clause In Purchase Agreement
Vigilance in detecting red flags—such as declining cash flow, increasing debt and falling sales—can help prevent severe outcomes, like bankruptcy, and provide an opportunity for management to make necessary adjustments, restructure operations, or seek external help.
As we enter 2026, the winners will be those who operationalize compliance as a capability by linking AI governance, privacy discipline, and cybersecurity resilience to business enablement.
As we kick off the new year, we asked several members of Taft’s Privacy, Security, and Artificial Intelligence practice group to share their thoughts on what should be on a client’s list of resolutions for 2026.
Federal Circuit: “Complete Identity of Inventive Entity” Required to Remove Prior Art as Not By “Another” Under Pre-AIA LawFederal Circuit: No Trade Secret Misappropriation By Goodyear nor Correction of Inventorship Warranted Because of Coda’s Failure to Show Specificity, Secrecy, or Evidence of Use
The Verification-Value Paradox states that increases in efficiency from AI use “will be met by a correspondingly greater imperative to manually verify” the outputs. The result is that the net value of AI in many legal contexts may be negligible once verification is honestly accounted for. For low-stakes tasks, verification costs are light. For core legal work, verification costs are heavy. That’s the tension.
An annual tradition continues at Cybersecurity Law & Strategy as we poll our panel of experts on the key developments of 2025 and what we can expect in 2026 in AI, privacy, e-discovery and other areas of legal tech.
