1. 2026 State of the US Legal Market: peak prosperity with fault lines below

Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 State of the US Legal Market reports 13% average law-firm profit growth in 2025, the best demand growth since the Global Financial Crisis, worked-rate growth of 7.3%, and a market in which roughly 90% of legal dollars still flow through hourly billing. The warning for Inside Legal Economics is that the same report points to rising technology and talent costs, GC spending pullback and AI pressure on the hourly model.