ALMResearchBlog

Practice Areas & Industries

Art Market: Artprice 2006 Art Market Trends

Automotive Industry, Canada: Industry Canada’s Report on the Automotive Industry, 2006

Civil Rights, International: U.S. Dept. of State 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Construction, International: KPMG 2007 Global Construction Survey Report

Courts, Canada: Bulletin of Proceedings Supreme Court of Canada Statistics, 1996 – 2006 

Courts, Federal: U.S.Courts Fiscal Year 2006 Judicial Business of the U.S.Courts

Energy, Petroleum, Canada: Statistics Canada Report on the Supply and Disposition of Refined Petroleium Products in Canada, November 2006

Environmental Law: National Council for Science and the Environment Restructuring of EPA Libraries

Environmental Law, International: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 2007 Report on the State of the World’s Forests 

Finance, Capital Markets: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commission on the Regulation of U.S. Capital Markets in the 21st Century - Report and Recommendations

Finance, Capital Markets: Boston Consulting Group 2006 Market Report

Freight Transportation, Europe: Statistics in Focus Trends in European Road Freight Transport, 1999 – 2005

Government, International, Technology: 2007 Waseda Universitye-Government Rankings

Government, US: Heritage Foundation’s Federal Revenue and Spending: A Book of Charts

Government, US: Center for Political Accountability’s Report on Corporate Political Spending 

Internet Crime: FBI 2006 Annual Internet Crime Complaint CenterReport

International Trade: Office of the United States Trade Representative 2007 Trade Policy Agenda and 2006 Annual Report

International Trade: U.S.Dept. of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis Report on International Transactions, 2006 

Labor & Employment: U.S.Dept of Labor OSHA Report on 14,000 Workplaces with High Injury and Illness Rates 

Landlord-Tenant Law: HUD 2007 Fair Market Rent Documentation System

Medical Malpractice: U.S.Dept. of Justice Report on Medical Malpractice Insurance Claims in Seven States, 2000 – 2004 (FL, IL, ME, MA, MO, NV, TX)

Mining: Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2006-2007

Tax: IRS 2006 Data Book 

Transportation, Aviation: Bureau of Transportation Statistics Report on Civil Aviation Safety, 2006 

Travel & Tourism: Accenture World Travel & Tourism Council 2007 Report

Venture Capital: PricewaterhouseCoopers New England MoneyTree Health Industries Report for 2006

Diversity: NLJ Report on Gay, Lesbian Lawyers at Large Firms

The current issue (March 26) of The National Law Journal carries a report about the growth in the number of gay and lesbian lawyers at large firms. NLJ surveyed NLJ 250 firms to find the number of lawyers at their firms who were U.S. citizens and who were also openly gay or lesbian. Of responding firms, 119 reported that they had at least one gay or lesbian lawyer working for them; this represents about 1.9% of of U.S. attorneys working at NLJ 250 firms. Los Angeles-based Irell & Manella, for the second consecutive year, reported the highest percentage of gay/lesbian lawyers.

The statistics regarding openly gay or lesbian attorneys are part of a larger survey of minorities conducted last December. The questionnaire was sent to firms ranked in The National Law Journal's NLJ 250, an annual survey of the nation's largest law firms, and to firms in The Am Law 200, a ranking of the nation's highest grossing law firms published by The American Lawyer. According to the "diversity" survey, in 2006 minorities made up 12.4% of the attorneys practicing at those firms, based on the total number of U.S.citizen attorneys at those firms. Last year's totals show a healthy increase from 2005, when minority attorneys represented 11.4% of all lawyers in the participating firms. Miami's Adorno & Yoss (169th on the NLJ 250 list) had the highest percentage of minority attorneys, at 38%. The firm reporting the lowest percentage of minority attorneys was Phillips Lytle (248th among the NLJ 250), a 173-attorney firm in Buffalo, NY. The firm reported that 3% of its attorneys were minorities. Among the firms in the top 10 of the NLJ 250, Latham & Watkins had the highest percentage of minority attorneys, at 18.3%. Jones Day had the lowest, at 10.9%.

Complete results of the survey will be available in the April issue of Minority Law Journal, an ALM publication.

Now on Martindale: Top 10 Lists

As reviewed on Robert Ambrogi's Lawsites, Martindale-Hubbell's legal directory site Martindale.com recently announced an interesting new feature -- top 10 law firm lists in three categories: top 10 peer-review rated, which ranks the firms with the highest number of peer-review-rated lawyers; top 10 by activity, which ranks firms in different subject areas by total number of federal cases during the past two years or total number of transactions; and top 10 by visibility, which ranks firms according to the number of times it has been searched during the past month. Following are some of the current rankings:

The most-searched firm overall was Holland & Knight.

The most-searched IP firm was Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto.

The firm with the most peer-review-rated lawyers was Holland & Knight.

The firm with the most antitrust cases in the past two years was Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll.

The firm that handled the most M&A transactions was Jones Day.

Another new addition to the Martindale site is called Activities Data, which shows detailed information about a firm's litigation and M&A activity. You can see, for example, that Jones Day devoted 16 percent of its litigation activity to IP work, that it represented defendants 73 percent of the time, and that it handled transactions worth over $293 billion.

M&A Global League Tables: Manhattan Firms Dominate in First Quarter

Mergermarket has just released its first quarter 2007 M&A league tables, and as reported by London's Legal Week New York firms Sullivan & Cromwell and Davis Polk & Wardwell have "stormed to the top." Other Manhattan firms to feature in the top 10  include Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz (fourth), Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (fifth), Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom (seventh) and Cravath Swaine & Moore (10th). Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was the highest placed UK firm in the table, placing 16th. However, Linklaters knocked its magic circle rival off the top spot of the European deal rankings. Freshfields placed second, and Clifford Chance was third.

Numbers

Total revenue of The Global 100: $61 billion. Total revenue of The Am Law 100: $51 billion.

Associate Salaries: Five More Firms Raise Starting Pay

Wolf Block Schoor & Solis-Cohen has announced that they are raising salaries for first-year associates in New York to $145,000, and to $135,000 in their Philadelphia and Cherry Hill offices.  New associates in the firm’s Roseland, New Jersey office will receive $115,000. All raises were made retroactive to February 1st,  the start of the firm’s fiscal year. 

And according to an insider at Bryan Cave, who posted the news on the “Skaddenfreude” thread of   Abovethelaw.com, “The professional development people had a meeting with the associates.“ New York associates will be getting the $15k raise [to $160K] across the board. DC and LA first years are going to $145K. Details to come in a memo to be distributed later today.” In the previous days, associates at several other hold-out firms – Baker & Hostetler , Fulbright & Jaworski, and Kenyon and Kenyon – blogged that their firms were “matching the market” in New York ($160,000 for first-years). All three of Kenyon’s offices (NY, DC,  Silicon Valley) were apparently promised the same rate.

Law Firm Financials: Drinker Biddle, O’Melveny

According to a report from The Legal Intelligencer , Philadelpahia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath saw “substantial” growth in revenue in 2006, a 10.3% increase, finishing out the year with $246 million. That number includes one month’s revenue from the firm’s merger partner, Gardner Carton & Douglas, though that revenue wasn’t material to the total amount, according to the report. Drinker Biddle’s revenue per lawyer saw a 5.5 percent increase, moving from $550,000 in 2005 to $580,000 in 2006, and profits per equity partner rose by 1.7 percent from $575,000 in 2005 to $585,000 in 2006.

 

On the other coast, O’Melveny & Myers saw profits stall in 2006, according to an upcoming report in The National Law Journal. O'Melveny, with more than 1,000 lawyers in 13 offices worldwide, reported 2006 revenue of $869 million and profits of about $1.6 million per partner, about the same as the previous year.

Law Firm Financials: Round-up from Pennsylvania

The reports have been dribbling out since the close of the 2006 fiscal year, and now ALM’s newspaper in Philadelphia, The Legal Intelligencer, has rounded up all the stories they’ve published to date on the financials of various law firms, and reprinted them under the headline Firm Financials Package. In a separate issue, the Intelligencer published the financial report for Stevens & Lee, which posted “double-digit increases” in revenue and profit, according to the report.

Law School Rankings: Academic Study

In a new academic study available through the Social Science Research Network, the authors contend that a boom in law school rankings has encouraged many U.S. law schools to take new measures to encourage and publicize faculty scholarship. The establishment of associate deans for faculty research is one such measure. The authors conducted a study to determine the number of law schools that have these dean-level positions. They argue that many law schools have established these positions as part of their efforts to improve their standing in the increasingly important rankings. The paper includes a historical overview of the original law school model and discuss how that model evolved over time. They focus on how those changes led to a competitive law school market that helped lay the groundwork for U.S. News & World Report and other law school rankings.

Lobbying: Two Annual Reports

ALM’s publishing group in Washington, DC includes the online database called Influence.biz . Legal Times, the newspaper there, just issued its annual lobbying report based on the accumulated 2006 data in the database. Charts included in the report rank the top 50 law firm lobbyists, the top 50 lobbying firms, and the overall “Influence 50,” all ranked by their total lobbying revenue for the year. The top 5 law firms included: Akin Gump ($76.9 million); Patton Boggs ($71m); Hogan & Hartson ($65.7m); DLA ($46.2m); and K&L Gates ($37.3m).  Top lobbying firms included Dutko Worldwide ($33.4m); Barbou Griffith & Rogers ($28.8m); Cassidy & Associates ($28.1m); Van Scoyoc Associates ($27m); and PMA Group ($19.6m).

ALM’s New Jersey newspaper, New Jersey Law Journal has also published its annual lobbying report , noting that “With a new administration in Trenton, New Jersey's registered lobbyists saw a dramatic 20 percent increase in revenues in 2006.” Leading their Top 10 list is Riker Danzig ($2m), followed by Lowenstein Sandler ($1.7m), and Gibbons, Newark($1.4m).