ALMResearchBlog

2008 AALL/Thomson West Excellence in Marketing Awards

Submissions are now being taken for the 2008 AALL/Thomson West excellence in Marketing Awards and thanks for the Law Librarian Blog for their announcement. The contest is open to any individual, group, library, Consortium, SIS, Caucus, Chapter, or any other group affiliated with AALL.  Award categories include: Best Brochure, Best Newsletter, Best Campaign, Best PR Tool Kit, Best Use of Technology. The deadline for entries is February 1, 2008.

2007 WebAwards for Excellence in Web Marketing

According to this report from Larry Bodine, the Web Marketing Association recently announced the winners in the 2007 WebAwards for excellence in the use of the Web for Marketing. Most notable, of course, are the law firm winners.

Womble Carlyle won the top award for Best Legal Website. And Bodine’s Law Marketing Blog has a list of all the winners in the Legal Category awards.

Best Law Firms to Work For--Especially if You Have a Family

A report spearheaded by a women's group at Yale Law School has picked the 10 most family-friendly law firms, with a midsized shop earning the top spot, according to a report that appeared recently in National Law Journal (“Milwaukee firm gets top ‘friendly’ nod”). Yale Law Women and a coalition of groups at seven other elite law schools have named Quarles & Brady the top firm based on length of maternity leave, existence of on-site child-care facilities, compensation, flexible schedules and other factors.

About a month ago, we also reported on the results of the annual Working Women’s magazine Best Places to Work  survey which, for the first time this year, had a list devoted exclusively to law firms. Alston & Bird made the top of that list.

Diversity News and Information

Which firms have made the best efforts to foster diversity? Take a look at the annual Diversity Scorecard, published each spring by ALM Media’s magazine, The Minority Law Journal. The searchable spreadsheet includes numbers of U.S. partners and associates who are minorities, as well as the percentage of women attorneys at NLJ 250 and Am Law 200 firms. It is available through ALM Research Online in the Lists & Rankings section. Subscribers to ALM Research Online have access to all years’ data (1984, 1985, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2001-2006).

We mention this because there have been a surge of reports about diversity in law firms and legal departments lately. The National Law Journal’s October 11th Law Firms Newsletter was completely devoted to the issue of diversity, with articles on Why Patches Won’t Work, Diverse Attorneys Need Reasons to Stay, The Challenge of Diversity Begins with Law School and several other topics.

Our newspaper in Atlanta, Fulton County Daily Report, reported that Fortune 500 Companies are Seeing More Minority GCs, with a report based on the latest survey from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association . Progress has been mixed for minorities, according to the report. The number of African Americans in Fortune 500 GC jobs continues to grow slowly, with 22 now holding such posts -- one fewer than last year. But the total of all minority GCs is up from 32 last year, and the number of Asian-American GCs has doubled, from 6 to 12. Unfortunately, a huge disparity in gender continues among Fortune 500 general counsel of color

The ABA Journal Newsletter that Cleary Gottlieb had topped the Diversity Rankings compiled by Law Students Building a Better Profession, using data published by NALP (National Association for Legal Placement). The study found that about a third of New York firms had no Hispanic, African-American, or Asian-American partners. Female partners were even less well-represented.

But many firms have made a concerted effort to promote diversity within the ranks. Bryan Cave recently named its first diversity officer (Tina Harris), according the a recent Hildebrandt Headlines posting, and Perkins Coie hired a new director of diversity and professional development—Theresa Cropper, who had previously been the national diversity director at DLA Piper.

Nominations Due: Tech Vendors and Marketing Depts

Law Technology News is now taking nominations for the annual LTN Vendor Awards and the Law firm/Law Dept. Technology awards, which are awarded at the LTN Technology Awards Dinner (Feb 5th, 2008) during Legal Tech New York. The process this year involves self-nomination. To find out how, click here. Forms are due by October 31st.

ALM’s Law Journal Newsletter, Marketing The Law Firm is now taking self-nominations for the third annual “MLF 50” list, the Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing. Deadline for submissions is Sept 17thFor more information about the submissions procedure and guidelines, click here. Last year’s list is available through the ALM Research Store ($15 for non-subscribers) or by clicking on this link: 2006 Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and Communications.

Webby Award Winners in the Law Blogs Category

Do you remember when it was still a cutting-edge move to build a web site for your organization? Consider this: The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences recently presented their 11th Annual Webby Awards. Awards are based on a number of creative and functional criteria, and there are almost 70 categories. One of those is “Law,” and the winner this year was LawHelp.org, operated by Pro Bono Net, while the People’s Voice Winner was FindLaw.com.

Most-Admired Law Firm Leaders

Bruce McEwan, on his blog Adam Smith, Esq, posted the results of a survey distributed recently by Edge International (but not to be found on their web site), of the results of Edge's short survey of law firm leaders asking them to name the law firm leaders they most admire. What is most interesting is that the most-admired leader is the same one named in The American Lawyer's survey of law firm leaders - Bob Dell of Latham & Watkins. The honor was mentioned in TAL's December issue, along with other results and stories related to leaders' outlook for the year to come.

Tied for second were Regina Pisa, Chairman and Managing Partner of Goodwin Procter and Lee Miller, Joint Chief Executive Officer of DLA Piper. McEwan's post then focuses on the attributes that respondents felt the "most-admired" had that made them admirable leaders. He also mentioned the 10 runners-up in Edge's "Most-Admired" survey:

Barron’s “Most Respected CEOs”

Barron’s has published its third annual list of Most Respected CEOs. Criteria, according to the editors: “We've sought to identify CEOs who have top-notch reputations in the financial community and who likely would be missed by investors if they unexpectedly left their jobs … we've talked to plenty of investors, looked at financial and stock-market performance and assessed intangible factors like leadership and industry stature.” On-line, you can find who is new to the list, who is a returnee, and who dropped off the list. Through ALM Research Online, you can find out who the outside counsel are for many of these corporations in the Who Represents Corporate America list.

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.

AALL Scholarship Applications Due by April 2nd

The Law Librarian Blog  has all the details about the AALL’s scholarships and directions for how to apply. The most important thing to know right now, however, is that the deadline for applying is April 2nd. The scholarships are designed to address the needs of the many types of individuals and their different educational backgrounds as they work on their goal of becoming a law librarian.