Each week the Southeast Takeaways team meets with analysts from ALM Intelligence, a unit of our company that collects and analyzes data about law firm economics (among many other things). Recently Patrick Fuller and Caitlin Kennedy from ALM Intelligence noted how the percentage rise in revenue per lawyer (RPL) among American Lawyer 100 firms based in the Southeast was higher than the national average.

This is important, because data experts like Fuller and Kennedy consider RPL among the most reliable indicators of a law firm's financial health. Yet the Southeast features several firms that illustrate where RPL can give a mixed view of what's happening in a firm.