ALMResearchBlog

Allen & Overy Has Best Law Firm Website, According to Poll

London based “magic circle” firm Allen & Overy is the U.K. law firm with the website most likely to win business, according to the 7^th annual Intendance Fast 50 survey and reported recently by Legal Week. The study rates the websites of the 50 fastest-growing U.K. law firms on criteria including content, usability, design and marketing potential. Nabarro topped the marketing category for its strong branding, while Mishcon de Reya was deemed to have the most user-friendly website, allowing users to access many different types of information from a single page. Freeth Cartwright offered the most depth of content, while A&O’s site was judged to have the best design as well as claiming top spot overall

2008 Webby Awards

And the winners of the “Oscars of the Internet” in the Law category are Out-Law.com (“IT and e-commerce by the international law firm Pinsent Masons”) for the Webby Award, and ABA Journal for the People’s Voice Award.

Legal Week Wins Top Magazine Award

Or, as our new sibling magazine in London touts about themselves,” Legal Week wins top magazine award—again.” The award won was Weekly Business Magazine of the Year in the 2008 PPA Awards. PPA is the association for publishers and providers of consumer, customer and business media in the U.K. The magazine was praised for its “agenda-setting coverage”, a “ground-breaking redesign” and the title’s success at building a “vibrant online community”.

Awards: Best Legal Web Site of 2008 Competition

As noted by Joe Hodnicki on the Law Librarian Blog, the Web Marketing Association is calling for entries for its 12th annual international WebAward Competition for websites. The Association will once again name the Best Legal Website of 2008.

The WebAwards is "the standards-defining competition that sets benchmarks for 96 industries," including legal web sites, based on the seven criteria of a successful website. The deadline for legal websites to enter to be judged is May 31, 2008. To access details and an entry form, click here.

Awards: How Bingham Won 11 Awards for Its Branding Campaign

This was an interesting post on Larry Bodine’s Law Marketing Blog, reviewing Bingham McCutchen’s almost-sweep in the 2008 LMA  Your Honor Awards. Bingham earned first place awards for its 2007 branding identify and advertising, and second place recognition for its web site design, and had earlier in the year secured nine regional LMA awards. Among the many winners was Bingham’s Bear and Baby ad, as Bodine notes, which was also named Law Firm Ad of the Year by The Wall Street Journal Law Blog and was featured on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” with host Stephen Colbert reiterating his well-known fear of bears and calling Bingham “the No. 2 threat to America.”

Diversity in Law Firms: News Round-Up

With the release of the just-published 2008 Diversity Scorecard, it’s worth taking a look at some of the “diversity news,” that has floated through the blogosphere recently. Most important is the recent Call to Action Summit, attended by more than 100 general counsel from Fortune 500 companies and managing partners of U.S. law firms. The purpose of the conference was to come up with specific ways to improve diversity in the legal profession. In moving more aggressively toward specific goals, Call To Action is attempting to address a growing problem. Last year, for example, women made up less than 33% of lawyers employed in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Blacks made up less than 5%, Asians 2.6% and Hispanics 4.3%.

Prior to the “diversity summit,” New York’s Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom had already made a pledge of $9.6 million to help minorities enter law. According to a story in the New York Law Journal, Skadden will commit the money over the next decade toward an honors program to help City College of New York’s minority students become attorneys. The Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Honors Program in Legal Studies is set to begin on the 14,000-student Harlem campus this fall. Freshman and sophomores will be recruited for what will eventually involve 100 juniors and seniors in a two-year curriculum of course work and seminars to complement the school's range of undergraduate academic majors.

But of course not all firms are as big and profitable as Skadden. A story that ran recently in The Recorder focused on how one Small Firm Draws In Big Clients With Diversity. That small employment defense firm, Villarreal Hutner, which is women- and minority-owned, has managed to land a variety of Fortune 500 and other large national companies as clients—companies with an interest in diversity. In the less than two years since name partner Lara Villarreal Hutner, who is Mexican-American, launched the firm, has brought in five other attorneys, all women with in-house or big-firm experience.

Annual Webby Awards: Voting Open Till May 1st

The nominees for the 12th annual Webby Awards are posted on their site, and voting will be open until May 1st. The awards honor excellence in Web sites in more than 100 categories, including law. As noted by Robert Ambrogi on Legal Blog Watch, The New York Times has called the Webby Awards the "Oscars of the Internet”; the awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Through its People's Voice Awards, the Webbys also allow voting by the Web community at large—and therefore, you can vote. Nominees for best law site are:

• Shearman & Sterling recruiting
• ABA Journal
• Jurist
• LawHelp
• OUT-LAW.COM

2008 Spirit of Law Librarianship Award Seeking Nominations

From the Law Librarians Blog: Each year the Spirit of Law Librarianship Award Committee honors one law librarian for his or her service to the community. Please help us recognize law librarians by nominating a worthy individual who has made a meaningful contribution to a social or charitable cause or concern. The deadline for submissions is June 1. More details can be found here.

LMA Awards for Brochures, Ads, and Marketing Initiatives

Thanks to Larry Bodine at the Law Marketing Blog, those of you who weren’t able to attend the LMA conference recently in Los Angeles, and see who won awards for their firm’s marketing efforts in many, many categories. Bodine has a list on his blog. Unfortunately, the links to the list in Excel format and the glossy 48-page 7.18MB PDF file of the 2008 Winner's Book are no longer available online.

Another Best Law Firm To Work For

The Chicago office of Perkins Coie made the list of Chicago’s Best Places to Work, published by Crain’s Chicago Business, and reported on the Law Marketing Blog. The firm has also been named to FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” every year since 2003.

We’ve posted before about this year’s lists of best law firms to work for—click here to read about firms named in FORTUNE’s and Working Mother's annual surveys.

Awards: Law Firm Marketing

The Legal Marketing Association’s New England Chapter named the winners of its Sixth Annual Your Honor Awards recent, according to Larry Bodine’s Law Marketing Blog. The Your Honor Awards recognize law firms that have demonstrated excellence in marketing and business development during the preceding year. So many firms are named—there are 13 categories, with three winners in each—that we’ll just refer you to Larry’s site.

LTN Awards Presented at Legal Tech

As reported by Monica Bay on her Common Scold Blog, Law Technology News held its fifth annual awards program February 6th during Legal Tech in New York, and announced the winners of the LTN awards. In the Vendor category, LexisNexis took four awards and CT Summation took three. The Law Firm and Legal Department award winners included John Sroka of Duane Morris, IT Director of the Year, and Goodwin Procter's iStaff system, for Most Innovative Use of Technology by a Law Firm.

Top 5 Legal Websites of 2007--For Making News

Bob Ambrogi, writing for Legal Technology News, announced the five Web sites that are "not necessarily the best or the worst, but the ones that most altered the online legal landscape" this past year.” They are Avvo , Public Resource, AltLaw, the ABA Journal, and Justia . Be sure to read Ambrogi’s descriptions of why each of these sites was singled out.

IALL 2008 Website Award Competition Now Underway

The International Association of Law Libraries recently announced that the competition for its annual website award is now open, according to this report on the Law Librarian Blog. Nominations will be taken through September 30, 2008.

Marketing Partner Forum Awards

As announced on Larry Bodine’s Law Marketing Blog, the winners of the annual Marketing Partner Forum Awards this year are:

• Chief Marketing Officer of the Year: Anne Malloy Tucker; at Goodwin Procter for 8 years
• Marketing Partner of the Year: Mark A. Long, Managing/Marketing Partner, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt
• Marketing Initiative of the Year: Foley & Lardner, Multimedia Integration Initiative

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.

ALM Magazines are Finalists in Neal Journalism Awards

As described in this recent press release from ALM, ALM’s Corporate Counsel and The American Lawyer have been named Finalists in five categories of the annual Jesse H. Neal Journalism Award Competition. Finalists were selected from more than 1,100 entries.  Established in 1955, the Neal Awards recognize and reward editorial excellence in business-to-business publications and are considered the industry’s most prestigious editorial honors.

We’d Like to See These

The Computers in Libraries organization has announced that it will be presenting its 1^st Annual InfoTubey Awards at this year’s April conference in Virginia. As they describe it, these awards will be presented to those organizations or individuals for outstanding library-related YouTube productions. Awards will be presented to the top five productions that demonstrate creativity, humor, and sincerity (of course!) in marketing a library or library services or enhancing the library's value.

LTN Vendor Awards

Law Technology News presented its annual Vendor Awards at the recent LegalTech, and all award winners are listed on editor in chief Monica Bay's  blog The Common Scold. Categories included Product of the Year, Case/Practice Mgmt software, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity provider, Docketing & Calendaring, Document Management, Electronic Data Discovery system, Knowledge management system, Litigation Support Service/Consultant, Litigation Support Software, Records Management, Time & Billing, and Trial Presentation Software.

 

Law Technology News Announces Winners

LTN editor in chief, Monica Bay, recently announced the winners of this year's Law Technology News Law Firm & Law Department Awards on her blog The Common Scold. Various honors went to CIOs and KM directors and counsel at Morrison & Foerster, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, the legal department of Pfizer Inc., Holland & Hart, Winston & Strawn, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, and Loeb & Loeb.

Five Firms Make Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” List

Five large law firms made Fortune magazine’s 2007  "100 Best Companies to Work For" list:  Alston & Bird, Arnold & Porter, Bingham McCutchen, Nixon Peabody, and Perkins Coie. Morrison & Foerster, the only California-based firm to make the 2006 list, dropped off the chart this year.

National Law Journal Names Lawyer of the Year and Runners-Up

This year’s Lawyer of the Year according to last week’s National Law Journal, is Theodore V. Wells Jr. of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. The runners-up, announced previously, is Carter G. Phillips, of Sidley Austin, and Neal K. Katyal a Georgetown University Law Center professor.

Best Lawyers Under 40

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association has recently announced its picks of the Best Lawyers Under 40. According to the association, these individuals have not only attained prominence in their respective legal endeavors, they have also exhibited steadfast commitment to community and public service, particularly in the Asian Pacific American community.

Vote for Your Favorite Law Blog

As Bob Ambrogi announced recently on the Legal Blog Watch, finalists in the 2006 Weblog Awards competition have been named, and voting will take place December 7^th through December 15^th.  Winners will be announced December 18^th. To find out more information, go to 2006 Weblog Awards.

Today's the Deadline for LTN's Vendor Awards Ballot

Our friend Monica Bay asked us to help her spread the word about the deadline for the LTN Vendor Awards Ballot - it's TODAY!  And December 15th is the deadline for law firm/law department juried awards.

Here is a link to Monica's blog, The Common Scold, where you can get all the information you need:

http://commonscold.typepad.com/commonscold/2006/12/last_chance_to_.html

2006 Top 100 Global Tech Leaders

Thanks to Monica Bay, editor in chief of Law Technology News, for calling our attention to the recent publication by London-based City Tech of its 2006 Top 100 Global Tech Leaders. Among other things, ALM’s Legal Tech shows were applauded as one of four "Best Legal Tech Events Both Sides of the Pond," calling Legal Tech "the best legal tech lead generator show on earth."

Calendar Items: Application and Early Registration

Thomas H. Lee Award for Service Excellence in Law: PRE-APPLICATIONS DUE SEPTEMBER 30! This award was created to recognize firms committed to excellence and outstanding performance (in the clients’ eyes) coupled with superior organizational results. The award application process gives participating firms opportunities to document and critically review their client service delivery processes. World class experts will analyze each application. Pre-applications for the award are due September 30th - APPLY NOW. For more information, please visit www.legalserviceexcellence.com.

Preferred Registration Available Now for RAINDANCE 2007: June 12 – 14, Four Seasons Resort & Club, Dallas, Texas. In response to conference attendee feedback, in 2007 LSSO will continue to limit the number of RainDance attendees to provide an intimate setting. Since space will be limited, LSSO is now offering preferred registration for LSSO members and RainDance alumni. Contact us for more information and to reserve your space.

Alacra Compliance Selected Model of Excellence Award Winner

Alacra, the company that powers our website, www.almresearchonline.com, has been selected as the winner of the Model of Excellence Award by InfoCommerce Group.  Read about it here: Alacra Compliance Selected Model of Excellence Award Winner.

American Lawyer Lifetime Achievers

The September issue of The American Lawyer includes their third annual set of Lifetime Achievers, including the stories of what sets them apart. As part of the magazine’s tradition, they have selected senior lawyers who have made important contributions to public life while building outstanding private or public-interest practices. As TAL puts it, “They are also exemplars-lawyers who breathed life into the legal profession's abstract values of client service and public service. To their juniors, their careers should be both an inspiration and a challenge.”

    

This year’s Lifetime Achievers include: David Andrews of Bingham McCutchen; Warren Christopher of O'Melveny & Myers; Joanne Garvey of Heller Ehrman; Conrad Harper of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Robert Pennoyer of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler; Dick Thornburgh of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham; William Zabel of Schulte Roth & Zabel; and Alexander Polikoff of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest.

Sixth Annual New York Times Librarian Awards

The deadline for nominating a librarian working in a U.S. Public Library for the Six Annual New York Times Librarian Awards is September 15^th. The award was created to honor librarians who provide exceptional services. Forms are available online (link above) or by calling 212-556-4520.

ALM Magazines National Award Winners

Four of ALM’s national magazines recently won “Awards of Excellence” in the annual competition conducted by the American Society of Business Publication Editors. "The American Lawyer was named as one of the nation’s “Top 10 U.S. Business, Trade and Association Magazines” and received a gold award in the “Regular Contributed Column,” and both gold and bronze awards in the “Special Section” category.

   

Corporate Counsel magazine received a bronze award in the “News Section” category. Focus Europe, a supplement to The American Lawyer, was named a gold award winner in the “Original Research” category. And IP Law & Business received a silver award in the “Special Section” competition.