Despite the huge legal fees involved in current anti-tobacco litigation, data show that fees paid to lawyers have stabilized. After double-digit growth during the 1980s, growth in law firm revenues in recent years has been more or less flat, observers say.

• In 1996, the median amount large companies spent on legal services -- around $20 million -- was about the same as in 1993, according to inflation-adjusted figures submitted by 80 companies in an annual Price Waterhouse LLP survey.

• Because the companies grew significantly during that period, legal expenses actually dropped as a percentage of revenue -- from 0.42 percent in 1991 to 0.29 percent in 1996.

• The inflation-adjusted amount consumers spend on legal services has been stuck at about $45 billion annually since 1989 -- dropping slightly as a percentage of gross domestic product.

• According to American Lawyer magazine, average profits per partner at the five most financially successful New York law firms dropped 26 percent between 1989 and 1996, on an inflation-adjusted basis.

While total revenues at U.S. law firms rose 7.4 percent between 1995 and 1996, that was a far cry from the 1980s -- when they were raking in annual increases between 12 percent and 19 percent a year.

Experts say the reasons for the trend range from new technologies that reduce paperwork to clients' closer scrutiny of billing practices. A cottage industry has emerged that subjects law firms to the kind of "utilization review" that is now routinely done on medical bills.

These firms second-guess legal bills by applying computer software that detects everything from padded time sheets and long-distance bills to excess copying charges. And other currently popular cost-cutting measures, such as retainers and flat rates, were the norm before 1960.