Thomson Reuters Institute Charts Litigation's Growing Revenue Role

Key Takeaways

• Commercial litigation is supporting law firm revenue as transactional demand remains uneven.
• Rising case volumes and settlement costs are pushing corporate legal teams toward stronger budgeting and early risk assessment.
• Litigation analytics from Lex Machina and Solomonic can help firms evaluate courts, opponents, claims, and potential outcomes.

Commercial litigation is taking on a larger role in the economics of major law firms, helped by sustained corporate disputes and weaker performance in some transactional practices. The Thomson Reuters Institute reported that counter-cyclical practices, including commercial litigation, grew about 2.9% in 2023, while transactional practices declined 2.3%.

Litigation provides law firms with a comparatively durable revenue stream when mergers, financing activity, and other deal work slow. For corporate legal departments, however, these disputes represent prolonged and difficult-to-forecast expenses.

Demand signals reinforce this trend. BTI Consulting Group found that 54% of corporate clients planned to increase litigation budgets for 2024, compared with 13% expecting cuts. The gap suggests legal departments were preparing for more complex matters rather than treating litigation growth as a short-lived anomaly.

Budget growth does not necessarily give general counsel more room to operate. Companies face pressure to control outside counsel spending, explain legal exposure to finance teams, and make earlier decisions about settlement or trial. A larger budget often reflects a larger risk surface.

The Norton Rose Fulbright 2025 Annual Litigation Trends Survey offers another measure of that pressure. The average number of litigation proceedings per corporate respondent increased to 4.4 during the past year, up from 3.9. Cybersecurity, consumer protection class actions, and patent disputes were among the areas of growing exposure.

Lex Machina's 2024 Contracts and Commercial Litigation Report recorded 10,253 contracts cases and 6,654 commercial cases filed in U.S. federal courts during 2023. Financial institutions appeared prominently as both plaintiffs and defendants, reflecting their central position in disputes involving lending, payment obligations, commercial agreements, and other financial relationships.

Claims Journal, reporting findings from Duane Morris, noted that class-action and government enforcement settlements cost corporate defendants about $51.3 billion in 2023. Ten individual settlements reached at least $1 billion. These high-exposure totals illustrate why litigation planning increasingly involves the chief financial officer and board.

This environment is strengthening the business case for litigation analytics. Platforms such as Lex Machina and Solomonic organize court records and historical case information so legal teams can examine patterns involving judges, law firms, parties, claim types, and outcomes. Consultancies such as BTI Consulting Group also give firms market intelligence about client demand and competitive positioning. Epstein Becker Green is among the firms using data-driven resources to inform commercial litigation strategy.

When lawyers can compare a dispute with thousands of earlier matters, assumptions become easier to test against empirical data. Analytics support decisions about venue, motion strategy, likely timelines, outside counsel selection, and settlement ranges, while helping legal departments communicate risk in terms business executives can use.

Court data can still be incomplete, settlements are often confidential, and historical patterns do not dictate how a particular judge or opposing party will behave. Effective use tends to combine quantitative evidence with procedural knowledge and case-specific judgment.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure remain the operational foundation for federal pleadings, discovery, motions, and class actions. Meanwhile, evolving Federal Trade Commission rulemaking concerning non-compete agreements could contribute to additional employment and commercial disputes as businesses reassess restrictive covenants and related contracts.

Law firms are leveraging these tools to help clients identify exposure sooner, budget with greater discipline, and choose a strategy supported by both legal judgment and usable data. For corporate teams, combining market intelligence with internal strategy proves increasingly valuable as litigation becomes a recurring business condition.