ALMResearchBlog

2008 A-List Release Tonight

The American Lawyer's sixth annual ranking of the nation's elite; the law firms that do it all, from big money to pro bono, this highly anticipated list reveals a set of overall performance ratings for the Am Law 200 law firms. Specifically, the A-List score is compiled using 4 elements: 1. Revenue per lawyer ratings from the Am Law 100 and 200 rankings released earlier this spring. 2. Pro bono ranks, which also appear in this upcoming issue. 3. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-year associate satisfaction ranks published in the August 2007 issue. 4. Diversity ranks from Minority Law Journal's Summer 2008 Diversity Scorecard. The 2008 A-List spreadsheet will be available for purchase from the ALM Research Store.

Q3 M&A League Tables … and Predictions of a Deals Decline

Mergermarket’s third quarter M&A league tables were released recently, and as they put it on the Alacra blog, “the top dogs all stayed in position.” Sullivan & Cromwell led the global league by deal value and Latham & Watkins led the global league by deal volume.

Meanwhile, The Deal’s Dealscape predicts that “the tremendous flow of M&A deals had to end someday, and time is right around the corner,” with links to Bloomberg and Reuter reports and a webcast with a panel that includes deal-meisters Marty Lipton (Wachtell, Lipton), Bruce Wasserstein (CEO and founder of Lazard), Leon Black (founder of Apollo Management), and The Deal editor in chief, Bob Teitelman. 

M&A Rankings: Sullivan & Cromwell, Skadden are Top U.S. Firms Over Time

As reported by Legal Week, Sullivan & Cromwell and Skadden, Arps have emerged as the top U.S. law firms in European M&A over the last three years research produced for Legal Week that shows the pair have worked on the highest value of deals over the period. Sullivan ranked first in the value tables for U.K. and Europe, advising on 173 European deals worth a total value of $1.2 trillion since November 2004 and 60 deals worth a total of $357.5 billion in the U.K. The third quarter Mergermarket M&A league tables are available through the Alacra blog and show that Sullivan again led the global league by deal value, but Latham & Watkins led the global league by deal volume.

Technology: Too Much?

A report of a recent survey of 115 lawyers at “multinational firms” and their uses of technology appeared recently on the Inhouse Blog, noting that the majority (56.1%) of respondents reported that technology led to longer working hours, but 46.5% said “technology made their working life more satisfying despite the longer hours, ad many were allowed to work from home.” The survey was conducted by law firm Kemp Little and the PLC Law Department magazine.

On a related note, the results of the Legal Technology Market Assessment Study, conducted by Cogent Research  and published by ALM Research are now available by topic—case management, document management, CRM, electronic discovery, and online research. The “LTMAS” Survey measured user satisfaction and brand loyalty to a variety of products within each product genre. The full report also covers budget and purchase plans for the coming year. For more information about this survey and the various reports, contact Chuck Lowry, director of client relations at clowry@alm.com.

Law Schools: Most Cited Law Professors

Brian Leiter, the other law school ranking entity, has just published Brian Leiter’s Most Cited Law Professors by Specialty, 2000-2007. There are 18 legal specialties covered, and each lists the “ten most cited” faculty, or the “twenty most cited” in the event that the area is quite large. Leiter notes that it is “not an exhaustive list of legal specialties. I have concentrated on those that are well-defined or especially important/prominent, and sometimes both.

Webinar on Law Firm Rankings

Law Journal Newsletter’s Web Audio Division is hosting a webinar called Law Firm Rankings: Nominations That Get Noticed and Have Impact. It's scheduled for Thursday, December 6, 2007 from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. EST. Panelists include Liz Lindley, Director of Jaffe Associates' RankingsForLawyers service; Kristen Chatterton, Marketing Services Manager, Hunton & Williams; Stephen Nelson, Managing Principal, Law & Government Affairs, The McCormick Group; and Katrina Dewey, Publisher, Lawdragon. To register and save 25% by registering online, click here.

Survey of Summer Associates: Size Matters

According to The American Lawyer, in reporting on the results of its annual Summer Associates Survey, “small is beautiful.” Only four of the top 20 firms had summer programs with more than 100 summer associates, while nine of the top 20 hired 30 or fewer. Still, the firms in the top five spots were not exactly boutiques: Nutter McClennan, Fox Rothschild, Buchanan Ingersoll, Morgan Lewis, and Mintz Levin.

Subscribers to ALM Research Online should note that this survey is one of the few not archived in our on-line database. However, in-depth management reports of a firm’s survey results—including, for instance, a comparison of the results from each of the firm’s participating offices—are offered through ALM Reprints.

Recent Release: 2007 NLJ 250

The 2007 electronic NLJ 250 provides demographics of the nation's largest law firms, and rankings based on the number of full-time attorneys. Data included in the spreadsheet includes: total number of attorneys, equity partners, non-equity partners & associates, starting salaries for first-year associates, branch office locations and number of attorneys by branch office, key marketing contacts, and more. This product is available free to subscribers and may be accessed in the ALM Research Store. Non-subscribers may purchase this searchable, sortable spreadsheet for $400.

Top Law Firms in Marketing and Communications

The Marketing the Law Firm newsletter has just released its third annual list of the MLF 50, aka/The Top Law Firms in Marketing and Communications. We can only let you know that Proskauer Rose garnered the top spot, but the story and the rest of the rankings are pay-per-view. But then again, it’s only $15, and a subscription to the newsletter is only $409 for electronic format. Elizabeth Anne “Betiayn” Tursi, the editor in chief, wrote in-depth profiles of each of the top five firms and their marketing/communications leaders. To find out more, click here.

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.