Interesting perspective on the state of the legal industry from the Law360 Litigation Almanac: shrinking legal budgets have so far had no impact on case volume. In fact, litigation rose 9 percent last year. According to a news release on the findings:

Class actions hit a new peak in 2008, rising 8% from the previous year on the back of an increase in antitrust - and employment - related filings. -- The economic crisis sparked a surge in corporate bankruptcy filings in 2008, while credit conditions also forced more companies to resort to quick, nontraditional bankruptcies -- trends that attorneys predict will continue until at least 2010.

Other highlights from Law360:

• Antitrust filings grew at a rate of 27%, extending a multiyear trend of dramatic increases as private plaintiffs firms closely track government investigations and prosecutions. A look at the dockets just for 2008 shows a slew of cases against chocolate makers, egg product processors, packaged ice distributors and many others, all filed soon after a government investigation was disclosed.
• The number of federal environmental lawsuits filed in 2008 rose for the first time since 2005, suggesting that the Bush administration's drop in enforcement actions, growing state activism and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on greenhouse gas regulation have worked to drive litigation upward.
• Employment litigation rose 6% in 2008, marking a reversal in the gradual decline in employment litigation seen over the previous four years.
  
• Meanwhile, the number of intellectual property lawsuits declined 11% in 2008, thanks largely to a dropoff in copyright litigation instigated by the recording industry. The trend reflects the success of the recording industry in protecting its copyrights, leading the industry to bring fewer lawsuits in the past few years.