Lex Machina is proud to release its 2022 Law Firms Activity Report, which surveys the most active law firms in federal district court. The report focuses on the three-year period from 2019 to 2021 and analyzes law firm activity in 16 practice areas and in cases caused by COVID-19. The final section of the report includes an analysis of the overall most active law firms in federal district court.

Highlights from the report include:

  • The Department of Justice remained the most active counsel, filing over 7,000 cases on behalf of plaintiffs and defending nearly 30,000 cases (after excluding multidistrict litigation associated cases). 
  • The most active firms who filed and defended lawsuits caused by COVID-19 were involved in large numbers of cases involving employment claims or claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (which falls under Lex Machina’s Civil Rights case type). 
  • Major employment firms appeared on multiple “most active” lists in addition to their own practice area, including most active firms involved with cases caused by COVID-19 and most active firms overall.
  • Class actions and suits related to single particular events continued to be influential in the overall landscape of litigation, even after excluding multidistrict litigation associated cases. These suits account for big case counts particularly in product liability, torts, and insurance practice areas.
  • While law firms with big case counts tended to have dedicated specializations, there were several national litigation firms that appeared across several practice areas.

Legal Analytics is used for planning, budgeting, and litigation strategy. The Law Firms Activity Report may be used for strategic planning, marketing, counsel evaluation, or competitive analysis in order to gauge market leaders and competitors against a dynamic, challenging legal landscape. 

Lex Machina hosted a webcast to discuss the report on February 24, 2022 with Natalie Rodriguez (Assistant Managing Editor for Law360 Pulse and co-host of Law360’s Supreme Court podcast) and Gloria Huang (Lex Machina’s Legal Content Associate and report author). View a recording of the webcast.

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