Corporate litigators may find themselves facing a dramatic upswing in business, according to a report from the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski, which says 83 percent of U.S. and United Kingdom companies surveyed reported that new litigation has commenced against their companies in the past year.

Of the companies that responded to the law firm's sixth annual Litigation Trends Survey, 38 percent said the primary reason for the new expectation of an upswing in business litigation is the economic downturn.

Forty-two percent of the survey's respondents said they expect an increase in legal disputes in the next 12 months. The survey polled 408 company lawyers from May through July 2009.

Respondents from large-cap companies were the most concerned about higher levels of litigation, with 52 percent saying they expect more legal disputes. In the public-company segment, 47 percent of the respondents expected an upswing in litigation.

The areas where an uptick in litigation is most likely are bankruptcy, contracts and labor-employment, the Fulbright & Jaworski report concludes. Increases also have been noted in the areas of intellectual property, insurance and regulatory actions, although they are experiencing more modest increases, the report said.

More than a third of the respondents said the economic downtown has boosted not only litigation but also the use of alternative fees.

"Generally, litigation rises in an economic downturn as regulators tend to step up enforcement, laid-off workers head to court and companies need to file more suits in order to collect on money owed," said Stephen Dillard, head of Fulbright's global litigation practice. "Perhaps most telling about this year's results is that companies across the spectrum expect no substantial decreases in any area of litigation."

In down economies, bankruptcies and contract and labor disputes almost always increase, taking the need for litigators along for the ride. This held true for almost all industries, save one: Only 6 percent of health-care respondents reported a rise in bankruptcy/reorganization litigation.

Whistle-blower investigations also are likely to make a comeback, the report concludes. "Looking to 2010, 16 percent of all respondents say they expect the number of internal investigations involving their company to increase," the report said.

Corporate in-house counsel expect the number of investigations into corporate business to increase.