	New= sLine
Law \| Business \| Information \| Research \| Surveys=	May/June 2006
ALM Research is a bu= siness within ALM Media, Inc. separate from = the Editorial Division. ALM Research does not play a role in the surveys published by ALM’s publications such as The American Lawyer = and The National Law Journal, but works with the data from their surveys afte= r it is published. ALM Research conducts and publishes other independent resea= rch identified as ALM Research products. NewsLine is a free bi-monthly electronic newsle= tter published by ALM Research. If you are receiving this issue as a forward and would like to become a subscriber, please sign up here<= /a>.

In This Issue		For Your Information \| Marketing vs. Business Development/Sales
§ FYI: Marketing vs. Business Development		As I write, the ALM Research/Brand Research Company’s 2006 Survey of Business Developme= nt Practices in Law Firms is in production, undergoing the last twea= ks. Kate Daisley, the ALM Research Marketing Manager, is just back from the <= u>LSSO conference whe= re she gave a presentation about the survey, along with Sue Stock Alison of the = Brand Research Company<= /u>, who helped compose this year’s questionnaire and analyze the result= s. And already, we are getting some attention in the industry—see especially LegalBizDev founder Jim Hasset’s comments . I’ve been up to my ears myself in the survey data and results, including working with the ALM Research staff to figure out how best to portray the results graphically. (There are whole schools of thought on the subject, especially those that originate with Edward Tufte. (See my blog item on the subject – PowerPoint: A Critique –. And yes, we actually spend time debat= ing whether the results to a particular question would best be represented in= a pie or bar graph, a table or set of bullet points, and in what colors.) <= o:p>
§ In the News \| In the Database \| 21 Years of AmLaws
§ Industry News: Diversity
§ Inside Information: Mr. Competitive Intelligence
§ Editor’s Note: Market Research in the 21^st Century
§ Now Available: Products & Services

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§ Subscribe to NewsLine		In the News \| In the Database \| 21 Years of AmLaws
§ E= ditorial Survey Calendar		Twenty-one years ago next month, The American Lawyer magazine launched its then-shocking annual exposé of law firm financials. That first year, the “AmLaws” focused on o= nly 50 firms. In the second year, the list became The Am Law 75. And then in 1986, the first Am Law 100 list appeared, and the list ranked 100 firms until 1998, = when the first Am Law 200 appeared, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has dominated the list, occupying the number one spot since the beginning, except for two years, 1993 and 1994. (Note: all are years published; the financials relate to the previous fiscal year.) In t= hose two years, the always-second-biggest Baker & McKenzie finally bested its rival for a brief victorious moment as king of the hill, and then fell back to its comfortable second place position among the Am Law 100. This year, the Chicago-based multi-national firm finished in third place for the first time since the mid-80s when it fell behind Jones Day for two years in 1987 and 1988) and another firm in 1986. This year, second place was taken over by Latham & Watkins.
§ Co= nference & Event Calendar
§ Law Firm Profiles
§ ALM Resear= ch Blog
§ ALM Research Online
§ ALM Research Product Descriptions
§ ALM Lists = & Rankings
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		Industry News: *Diversity*
		I’m an interested observer of the ebbs and flows of supply and demand. For insta= nce the growing diversity among law firm attorneys seems to correlate positiv= ely with the increasing demands from corporate clients that their outside cou= nsel include minority attorneys. Corporate counsel expects—and demands—diverse counsel on their significant matters and in respons= e to that demand, the hiring of minority attorneys has accelerated. This is the theme of several stories in the summer edition of The Minority Law Journal, which includes the annua= l Diversity Scorecard = report and rankings for 240 of the largest U.S. firms.






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		Inside Information: Mr. Competitive Intelligenc= e=
		“When I give demonstra= tions,” says Charles (Chuck) J. Lowry, Director of Client Relations for ALM Resea= rch, “the most popular questions have to do with the client relations information.” Chuck was speaking of the subscription-based informat= ion database, ALM Research Onli= ne. “People want to know about corporate representation in various fiel= ds over a couple of years,” he says, and they gravitate immediately towards the Corporate Representation data, which comes from lists and announcements published in ALM’s many publications. “And there’s also tremendous interest in t= he Lateral Partners information. And also in Law Firm Financials information—they’re not going to get that type of information anywhere else. And then there’s the …”






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		Editor’s= Note: Market Research in the 21^st Century
		I recently attended my first Marketing Research Association conference (Washington, D.C., June 14 through 16), and what a delightful experience = it was. I don’t think I’ve ever attended a conference where so m= uch effort was made to welcome newcomers and offer networking experiences. Th= ere was a healthy mix of people who “do” research and own and man= age research companies, and those who purchase their services (“end-users”). I came away feeling that I had gotten involved= at just the right time in the organization’s almost-50 year history. MRA is working diligently to bring together close alliances, if not mergers, between the many research associations and organizations that have sprung up over the decades to organize and bring together folks involved in serving the market and opinion research needs = of the world. Without explicating the acronyms, just a few of those that they have been working with include AAPOR (public opinion research); ARF (advertising research); CASRO (survey research); CMOR (lobbying and regul= atory issues); ESOMAR (a world association for researchers); IMRO (online and o= ther interactive technologies for research); and QRCA (qualitative research). = MRA has also worked very diligently to establish a certification program so that end-users will know that “PRC” (Professional Researcher Certification) after someone’s name signif= ies someone who is credentialed as a researcher at one of three levels (associate, practitioner, or expert), has on-going educational experience= s to maintain their certification, and most importantly, adheres to the MRA Co= de of Marketing Research Standards. That aside, I was amazed at some of the advances in research methods and technologies that are currently available—thou= gh keep in mind that I’m so old I remember paper surveys and face-to-f= ace focus groups. These days, voice-recognition software means that an on-line survey can be completed with the respondent barely having to use a keyboa= rd. And focus groups can be brought together via the magic of teleconferencin= g, captured on “video” tape and streamed into the end-users computer. And text-mining programs used to scour the Internet for “natural,” unsolicited commentary about a client’s prod= uct or service. Having just spent the better part of several days analyzing the patterns in the verbatims (write-in comments to open-ended questions) from the 2006 Business Development Survey, I was astonished to see a demonstrat= ion of a new software program that is used to analyze the verbatims, quantify= ing and categorizing every possible aspect in order to turn them into charts = and graphs. And the cost for this little miracle machine? $75,000!= All that fancy-schmancy technology is pretty darn impressive, but I was most gratified to see that a number of sessions—and, indeed, a number of companies—still focus on qualitative methods, in particular what is loosely known as “ethnog= raphic” research, the type of methodology I focused on in grad school. Most simply put, ethnographic research involves paying close attention to the individ= ual research subject or group of subjects, and observing them in their own environment. It involves, for instance, asking a stay-at-home-mom to show= you her mini-van, and tell you how she uses it, and then follow her around as= she goes through her normal week, chauffeuring her kids and shopping. It invo= lves recording the detritus of the family’s lifestyle that finds it way = into the mini-van but which has no storage place. It involves recording how the mom and her family adapt the mini-van to their own uses, uses that the designers never in their wildest dreams imagined. Listening. Observing your subject (e.g. your client) in his/her own environment. Recording what you hear, see, and observe. Making sense of it all. That kind of research doesn’t sound too complicate= d or expensive, does it? And yet, only about 56% of the law firms we surveyed = said they do any kind of interview or survey to get client feedback. How can you formulate an action plan if you haven̵= 7;t done any research? That’s what I’m wondering. Until the next issue, Margaret Daisley, Editor ALM Research NewsLine mdaisley@msn.com 917-847-7445








		Now Available through ALM Research
		The following products, as well as many others, are available through ALM Re= search Online to download in Excel® to sort, search and analyze or to integrate into your own database for further analysis and trend tracking. Samples spreadsheets may be viewed on ALM Research Online. <= o:p> Subscriptions to ALM Research Online enab= les direct access to ALM's proprietary database of legal business and financi= al information derived from rankings and surveys, including The Am Law 200, = NLJ 250, NLJ Billing Survey, Corporate Scorecard, and much more. A base subsc= ription provides access to data from the most recently published lists and rankin= gs and the Law Firm Reports, containing one year's worth of data for individ= ual firms. A premium subscription allows full access to the full database of archived data, some going back to 1978; the Law Firm Reports based on one, three, and five years' worth of data; and current and past lists and rank= ings in downloadable spreadsheet format.






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Inside Information: Mr. Competitive Intelligenc= e=