Yes and no. Yes in the sense that all employees except the management hate the current regime because they're having their budgets and teams cut and workloads

Yes and no. Yes in the sense that all employees except the management hate the current regime because they're having their budgets and teams cut and workloads increase, so me and my peers would fully agree with you. Less cost cutting, less profit, but a more sensible workload. No in the sense that the prices to the customer aren't coming down to cost-price. The reason for this is that we deliver ridiculous value (i.e., with $250k of annual legal work, which is puny, you can generate millions in cost savings). You'd think then, that competing business would quickly arise and drive prices down, but the industry is so cyclical (and doomed to die as lots of things get automated etc), that it's not a great industry for new entrants to compete with the incumbents (which have consolidated with lots of mergers the past 20 years become quite massive firms with strong brand names that drive tons of inbound leads, besides if you're a small new entrant you tend to get bought out anyway) Hell these firms are all in private hands and have been for a long time, the shareholders appoint a board to squeeze as much profit... which is why I concur with the OP, a lot of the business is driven by cheap juniors under the guise of a strong brand name, where senior staff spend the majority of their time on sales rather than actual work, and are called 'vice presidents' for that reason. On the other hand, it's not all that crazy. The funny thing is, all the juniors are 100x more educated than the seniors. You've got 23 year olds with a double master's in econometrics and tax law, while you'll find some senior VPs who got into the business in the 70s or 80s who may or may not have a bachelor's in something. Sure the seniors have the experience and the kids are often clueless when they just start out, but they're also usually sharp, hard-working, well-read (in subject material), have quantitative skills and broad competencies. So it's not all that crazy.