Dennis J. Shaughnessy
Analyst
Probably all 3, David. I think it's difficult. I didn't mean that to be glib, but I think it's difficult to try -- to then wait. We are, in particular at FLC, coming off an extremely difficult quarter to comp. And so the actual buildup in business this quarter and the buildup of business there over the year has not been that bad. It has simply been fighting the headwind of several monster cases that you're aware of that have finally burnt off, a couple of them which probably reached their zenith in billing in the third quarter of last year. I think that in the regulatory area, you're right, and I think that you're going to see it pick up. It has to. I don't think this administration is coming back in with an idea that there's a public mandate that they regulate less. They may not want to regulate more, and they just may want to be a lot more aggressive about sort of the actions they started in first term. I think in the disputes area, where we're seeing good business come in, I mean, that is normally the area, in all honesty, that you see affected by the economy. I think it has been down, as you accurately put it, the last couple of years. I think we're seeing it creeping back up. We are certainly seeing the MBS cases mature now to where they've been on the books for a while. And now both in E Con and FLC, our people are getting busy in those cases because on the civil side, they're maturing because, as you know, a lot of the state and federal investigations are ending. The fines are being paid. The settlements are being made, and that then triggers sort of the civil activity. There is no doubt that in certain parts of the world, we are seeing structural changes in the business. And I think that the biggest probably is what's happening to the law firms in alternative fees, with what's happening to a shift in the channel. Where a lot of this business came through an indirect channel, the law firm, more and more is coming out of the General Counsel's office. And so I think there, they're looking for broader master services agreements, broader reach, broader relationships. Clearly, they're looking to save fee, and I don't think that's going to go away. I think again, when it's -- that the enterprise problems, when it's crisis type of problems, big, huge complex problems, we're not seeing that. But in the normal amount of business, we are seeing a shift more and more into the General Counsel's office, making key decisions, looking for broader and deeper relationships, master services agreements, which are good for us given our reach and given the -- what we can. But they're clearly looking for fee consideration in exchange for those contracts.