ALMResearchBlog

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.

Survey: GCs Like Their Job, Plan to Hire More In-House Help

According to a recent survey report by the Association of Corporate Counsel, 85% of chief legal officers and general counsel find their careers rewarding, despite increased corporate governance demands and sometimes tense relationships with independent auditors. A report of the eighth annual survey of CLOs and GCs by ACA,  appeared in National Law Journal, which noted that nearly a third of the respondents expected to add staff over the next year and that records management would be an emerging issue for in-house attorneys this year. NLJ also reported that, while 59% of CLOs and general counsel revealed that increased monitoring by law enforcement and regulators had only a modest influence on their career satisfaction, 30.6% said it would make a "considerable impact" on their future decisions, such as looking for a new CLO job or retiring.

Now Available: Business Development Practices in Law Firms Survey Report

The third annual survey of Law Firm Business Development Practices, ALM Research continues to track trends in business development/sales, as a distinct initiative in law firms, separate from traditional marketing/communications efforts. Benchmarking information includes budgets, staffing, organizational structure, resources, and compensation for the senior-most marketing and business development professionals, including the percentage of firms where those efforts and roles are still inseparable.

As in the two previous surveys, results for “Tier 1” and “Tier 2” firms are provided. New this year is a section reporting the key benchmarking results for the very largest firms. This year’s survey also tested for the pervasiveness and effectiveness of several popular business development strategies: client interviews and surveys, sales training for lawyers, and client service teams. Respondents also reported on the process and success of submitting RFPs, and their firm's requirements and rewards for its lawyers’ business development efforts.

Full Price: $1250.00 (Includes Print & PDF file versions)
$995.00 (PDF file only)

Note that survey participants are eligible for a free copy of the executive summary of the key results of the survey, and a firm-specific benchmarking report with the purchase of the full survey report. Subscribers to ALM Research Online are eligible for a 20% discount on the purchase of the full report.

Contact ALM Research for more information and pricing.
888-770-5647 or email almresearch@alm.com

Survey: Minority Attorneys More Satisfied at Large Firms

According to a survey by the Cuban American Bar Association, and reported in Small Firm Business, minority attorneys at larger law firms are more satisfied than lawyers at smaller firms. The survey's goal was to identify which firms have greater success with diversity. One Holland & Knight partner, according to the report, said that some large firms have diversity ingrained in their cultures through committees and formal retention and recruiting policies, whereas promoting diversity in a smaller firm isn't as precise a science as with a big firm.

Law Schools: Recruiting

According to a report April 14 from the National Law Journal Columbia Law School landed in the No.1 spot again as the school that sent the greatest portion of graduates to NLJ 250 law firms, with nearly 75 percent of its students in 2007 taking jobs among the nation's largest law firms. Last year, 69.6% of its graduates went to NLJ 250 law firms. All told, the top 20 law schools that NLJ 250 law firms relied on most to fill their first-year associate ranks sent 54.9% of their graduates to those firms, compared with 51.6% in 2006.

Data from this survey report is available from ALM Research Online. Called the 2007 Law School Hiring Survey , the data is presented in spreadsheet format and includes the law firm, schools from which they hired associates, and the number hired from each school. In addition, this product includes the number of associates promoted to partner in 2007 at each participating law firm. Years available for purchase (or free download by subscribers) are 2006 and 2007.

New Role at Firms? Client Interviewer

Ballard Spahr has hired a veteran journalist, Debra Nussbaum, to be a full-time client interviewer, according to a recent report on the Law Marketing Blog. Nussbaum has more than 30 years of newspaper reporting experience, beginning her career at The Minneapolis Star, then writing about real estate for The Philadelphia Inquirer and about schools for The New York Times. She started in the firm's Philadelphia office in February and is gradually starting to meet with clients for candid interviews in which the clients can talk about what type of service they are getting, any problems that have arisen and what needs to be done better. Nussbaum is not a lawyer herself, but might be accompanied to some of these interviews by lawyers from the firm.

As Larry Bodine of the Law Marketing Blog notes:  Client interviewers are a perfect extension of the marketing function, not a replacement.  Gathering data about clients is what marketing is supposed to be all about. In our recently-completed survey of Law Firm Business Development Practices, over half (56%) of large firm respondents said their firms conduct formal client interviews or satisfaction surveys, and 70% felt that it was a “very” or “extremely” effective strategy for building business. Hey, it just makes common sense to find out if your clients are satisfied with the service they are getting—and if, perhaps, they have more business they’d like to bring your way.

Practice Focus: Bankruptcy Expected to Be Hot

Robert Half Legal’s annual survey of the upcoming year’s hot practice areas was released recently. Lawyers from large firms and legal departments at the top corporations are predicting that bankruptcy will be a very hot practice area in 2008, along with litigation, and ethics and corporate governance.

This jives with our findings in ALM Research’s recently completed report of our survey of Law Firm Business Development Practices, in which the top five practice areas predicted to bring in the most revenue in the coming year were litigation, intellectual property, real estate, bankruptcy/reorganization, and business law. Industries that the majority of respondents predicted would bring in the most revenue in 2008 were finance/insurance/real estate; energy; technology; biotechnology; and health care.

Women Lawyers’ Salaries Slipping; Billing Rates are Lower than Male Lawyers’

The latest issue of Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine carries an article called Sexism in the Workplace  (mentioned on the Cal Law Blog, which borrows from a survey (PDF) by the National Association of Women Lawyers to make the point: the salaries of female lawyers are slipping in comparison with those of their male colleagues. We won’t pound you with the statistics here, but just cite one from Portolio’s article: according to the most recent statistics available, female attorneys' weekly wages amounted to 70.5 percent of male lawyers' in 2006, compared with 77.5 percent in 2005. The ABA Journal cited the same NAWL study in an article last November.

This issue was of particular interest to us because of one of the findings in our recently published survey of billing rates and alternative billing practices at small firms and solo practices (ALM Research Billing Rates & Practices). The data, based on the responses of more than 5,000 lawyers across the U.S., showed that female lawyers rather consistently bill at lower rates than males, regardless of firm size, years in practice, geography, and—with a few exceptions—practice area.

What gives? Are we heading backward in time?

Study Tracks Subprime Litigation

As mentioned by Robert Ambrogi on Legal Blog Watch, Navigant Consulting has published a report on a study of subprime subprime mortgage and related litigation (2007: Looking Back at What’s Ahead), identifying 278 cases filed during 2007, of which 65 percent were filed during the year’s final six months. Questions addressesd in the study include: Who are the parties involved? What types of cases are being filed? What is the status of the cases? Who is being sued? Who is filing the suits? Where are the suits being filed? What specific claims are being put forth? Contact information is provided for those who want the full report.

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.

More On Laterals: Primary Way To Spur Growth, According To Survey

In our soon-to-be released report of the 2007 Business Development Practices Survey, we found that “lateral hires” was rated the primary strategy for growth; in the previous survey, it had been rated as the second-most important factor leading to growth in a firm’s revenues. After laterals, the next two factors leading to revenue growth were strategic business development efforts, and increasing billing rates. We will have the report in print and ready for distribution by the end of the month. For more information contact head of client relations, Chuck Lowry.

For more information about laterals—specifically, lateral partner moves at large firms— ALM Research Online offers the Lateral Partner Moves spreadsheet. The 2007 spreadsheet is now complete, and the 2008 information is in progress (the information is updated monthly). Included in this product are: the name of the partner; the law firm or organization (and city) left; the law firm or organization (and city) joined; the position left and joined (e.g. Partner or other position, such as General Counsel, or a political or judicial appointment); the partner’s practice area; the month and year of the move, and the source of the information.

Law School Surveys: Students There For Money and Influence – But Law School Enrollment Flat

A recent Kaplan survey (December 2007) asked 2,000 potential law school applicants why they want to be lawyers. The conclusion: financial gain and political ambition. (Find the survey and related articles at the Tax Prof Blog and a short article and comments on the Wall St Journal Law Blog. According to the WSJ report, 73% of the survey respondents indicated that they wanted to enter the legal profession because of the high income potential, and 42% would “definitely” or “probably” run for political office in the future.

There was any interesting gender twist to the political ambitions, and this is what most of the school newspapers picking up the story focused on: 52% of males said they had political aspirations, while only 34% of women said the same.

In the meantime, law school enrollment for first-year law students essentially was flat this past fall, with the number of men enrolled falling by 2% and the number of women rising 2.4%, according to the American Bar Association (ABA), and reported by National Law Journal. Total enrollment for students seeking juris doctor degrees rose by 2.9%, from 141,031 to 141,433 students attending the 196 law schools accredited by the ABA. First-year minority students enrolled in juris doctor programs increased 0.9%, but as a percentage of the first-year class, they dropped from 22.4% to 22.3%.

Is Your Law School a Firm Favorite?

We hadn't thought of putting it quite that way, but that's the question Joe Hodnicki asked on the Law Librarian Blog , when mentioning a recent addition to the ALM Research Store, the 2007 Law School Hiring Survey. The report is based on data collected in the 2007 NLJ 250 survey, and shows which firms recruited from which law schools, and how many were recruited. Also included are the numbers of associates promoted to partners, and which law schools those new partners had attended. Click on this link to see a sample of this spreadsheet product, which is available free to subscribers and for $250 to non-subscribers.

New Report Identifies the Slowest Federal Judges in the U.S.

Last month, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts released its semiannual report on pending cases and motions, which -- however imperfect -- is the closest thing there is to a judicial report card, according to this report in Legal Times. The office's data, current as of March 2007, show that 13 judges had at least 100 civil cases pending for longer than three years, and 22 judges had 50-plus motions pending for six months or more. A handful had more than 100 motions and more than 200 cases pending -- the kind of backlog that doesn't go unquestioned, according to Legal Times.

More than half of the judges with 100-plus cases pending are handling multidistrict litigation, the newspaper reported, “which smothers the docket like kudzu.” Judge Harvey Bartle III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania leads the list, with an improbable 473 pending cases. The vast majority of those cases consist of personal-injury matters related to multidistrict litigation. Shira Scheindlin from the Southern District of New York, showed 379 pending cases -- an exceptional load, rating her the No. 2 spot -- but nearly all are part of a multidistrict class action that began as more than 1,000 pieces. The complaints were eventually swept into about 300 cases, In re IPO, and assigned to Scheindlin in 2001. Then they lumbered up to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and lay there for 2 years, Scheindlin says.

Legal Times' report includes two lists: Backlog of Cases and Backlog of Motions.

Did You Get Your E-Newsletter from ALM Research?

The January-February edition of our e-newsletter, NewsLine, was sent out yesterday. If you didn't receive it by e-mail, click on the NewsLine link. And if you want to subscribe to this venue for inside information about our online database and products, just click here. 

The current issue focuses on billings, including discussion of some of the most important findings of our recently published ALM Research Billing Rates & Practices, a report of our survey of over 5,000 lawyers from small firms and solo practices across the U.S. which had some surprises, especially regarding the disparity in billing rates based on gender; the NLJ Billing Survey and how much billing rates have increased at NLJ 250 firms since the inception of their survey (1989); and for a regional perspective, the Florida Billing Survey. We also looked closely at the joint Altman Weil/ALM Research Law Firm Practice Group Management Survey to see if it could shed any light on billing rates and practices at the practice group level. It does.

Survey: What Law Firm Lawyers Earn

The Robert Half Legal 2008 Salary Guide provides a great synopsis of salaries of experienced lawyers. As reported on Larry Bodine’s Law Marketing Blog, as an example, a lawyer in in Chicago with 4 to 9 years' experience in a midsize law firm (35-75 attorneys) can expect an income of $120,00 to $185,700.  Naturally, your earnings rise with more years of experience, if you work for a large law firm (75+ attorneys) or practice in the following high-paying cities: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, Chicago,, Detroit (a surprise, Bodine notes), Hartford and New Haven, Houston and Dallas, Los Angeles, Irvine, Oakland, Ontario, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, CA, Manchester, NH, Miami, New York and White Plains, NY, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Paramus, NJ, Providence, RI, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Client industries that are currently paying top dollar are: healthcare, financial services, information technology, commercial real estate (in the Southeastern US only), manufacturing (in the Midwestern US only).

Hot practices include lawyers experienced in commercial litigation, intellectual property, commercial real estate and product liability, particularly for pharmaceutical companies. The globalization of law is creating demand for lawyers with international litigation and enforcement experience, and ability to speak multiple languages and function in different cultures, Bodine says. Robert Half predicts that attorneys with one to three years of experience at large law firms will earn between $114,000 and $147,500 per year, an 8.2 percent increase over 2007 projections. Senior attorneys with 10 or more years of experience at large firms will see starting salaries rise 7.9 percent, to the range of $167,500 to $234,000 annually.

The Billable Hour Must Die … or Clients Are Going to Kill It Anyway?

That rather hyperbolic title of the cover story last August in the ABA Journal was The Billable Hour Must Die ,authored by novelist and essayist Scott Turow. The problem with the billable hour, Turow argued, is that “when you are selling your time, there are only three ways to make more money—higher rates, longer hours and more leverage. As the years have gone on, the push has continued on all three fronts.” With some firms setting billable hours requirements for their lawyers at close to, even above, 2,000 hour a year,” we are getting close to the absolute limit of how far this system can take us economically,” he says. He also argues that the hourly billing arrangement sets up an adversarial relationship between lawyer and client from the get-go, and notes that he has “never been at ease with the ethical dilemmas that the dollars-times-hours regime poses, especially for litigators.”

Of course, since we've just published our first survey of billing rates and practices--with responses from more than 5,000 lawyers from small and midsize firms and solo practices--we've been very interested in stories about billables and alternative billing practices here at ALM Research.

Legal Blog Watch [ ] editor Carolyn Elefant references Turow’s article in her own commentary Time Again for More Criticism of the Billable Hour, but points towards another article, one which appeared on  Slate.com called The Scourge of the Billable Hour: Could law-firm clients finally kill it off? As Elefant argues, the article “makes an important, albeit obvious point: Despite persistent criticism of the billable hour by academics, lawyers and bloggers, the system won't change until clients demand a change. And according to the article, that's what clients are doing now.”

This month (January 2008), the ABA Journal Weekly News carried a short follow-up to this with a post called Clients May Help End Billing by the Hour. Among the companies pushing for alternative billing arrangements, the Weekly reported, are Cisco, Pitney Bowes and Caterpillar, companies that “favor flat fees and discounts for volume legal work in an effort to control their bills and predict expenses.” Cisco’s general counsel Mark Chandler was quoted as calling the billable-hours approach "the last vestige of the medieval guild system to survive into the 21st century."

And now it’s become news, or even PR. A January 14 story in the National Law Journal about a new Chicago firm called Valorem – which is Latin for “value”-- that plans to meet the increasing demand for alternative fee arrangements that lower legal costs by working with clients to agree on fixed rates, contingency fees, monthly retainers or other arrangements. The firm will focus on high-end commercial civil litigation.

Review of ALM Research Billing Survey

Brian Ritchey, writing on the More Partner Income blog, did a short review of our recently published survey report on Billing Rates & Practices, which covers those topics, based on over 5,000 responses from lawyers at small and midsize firms and solo practices. Among other things, he compares the results with results from other surveys, such as the NLJ Billing Survey (of large law firms), the Law Firm Economic Survey (conducted by Juris; Juris was recently purchased by LexisNexis).

Two of the main findings Ritchey examines in his post: 1) the rule of thumb that we found to be true in our survey that the bigger the firm, the higher the hourly rate; and 2) a surprisingly high percent (88%) of lawyers reported that the offer alternatives to the billable hour.

The ALM Research Survey Report of Billing Rates & Practices, as well as the most recent NLJ Billing Survey are both available through ALM Research Online.

2008 Business Outlook Survey

The Association for Financial Professionals released the results of a survey about the business outlook for the coming year; 651 corporate practitioner members and associate members responded. The organization feels its member have a unique perspective because “they work in a wide range of industries and in public or private organizations of varying sizes, the views of financial professionals are excellent indicators of future business conditions.” The summary of the results is that, “While the U.S. economy will weaken over the next 12 months, it will continue to grow in 2008.” In addition, the report say, financial professionals also identified a number of factors that they feel could threaten continued economic growth including the value of the U.S. dollar, volatile energy costs, and declining home prices.

Legal, Financial, and Real Estate Industries Dominate Presidential Fundraising

According to a recently release report by Public Citizen and the Campaign Finance Institute, “More than half the major fundraisers for the presidential campaigns hail from just three segments of the U.S. economy: lawyers and law firms, representing both corporate and consumer interests; the financial sector; and real estate.” These industries account for more than 1,100 of the major fundraisers for the presidential candidates, the report says, adding that, “In contrast, most of the 70 major industries represented in the study furnished 15 or fewer major fundraisers, often called “bundlers.”

“Bundlers are a highly concentrated bunch. The paltry number of people who bankroll campaigns shows this private fundraising system is broken,” according to Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. The report includes a link to the full bundler/fundraiser database, WhiteHouseForSale .

Law School Hiring Stats

As part of its annual NLJ 250 survey, the National Law Journal surveyed the firms—including the ones that didn’t make the top 250 firms list—about their hiring: which law schools they hired from and how many were hired from each law school. That information is now available from ALM Research Online in the Lists & Rankings section as the 2007 Law School Hiring Survey. As a bonus, firms also contributed information about how many associates were elevated to partnership in 2007.

Survey: Women in Large Firms Advance at Same Rate as Men, but Earn Less

According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Women Lawyers and reported in the National Law Journal, the nation's largest law firms are in a bit of a holding pattern when it comes to the advancement of women within the firms. The group's second annual survey shows the numbers of women in equity partnership and management have stayed about the same since last year, while the pay disparity between male and female attorneys has increased at certain levels.

Librarian Salaries: 2007 SLA Survey Shows Pay Increases Outpace Inflation

The Special Libraries Association recently released the results of its 2007 Salary Survey and Workplace Study. The study contains salary information and other data from respondents in Europe, including the UK. According to the press release, the average salary increases for SLA members in the U.S and Canada have outpaced inflation yet again. Based on salaries as of April 2007 for U.S. based respondents, the increase in salaries for 2007 over 2006 was 5.1%. This is 1.1% higher than the increase from 2005 to 2006. The average salary for U.S. members who answered the survey was US$ 69,446, compared with US$ 67,400 reported in 2006. The average for Canadian members was CAN$ 67,171 compared with CAN$ 65,522 in 2006. Salaries for Canadian members were 4.9% higher on 1 April 2007, than a year earlier, while the CPI had increased just 2% in the same period. More information about the survey can be found here.

Marketing Salaries: North American Firms Pay 24% More to Their Managers

According to a recent “snapshot survey” on marketing salaries by PM Forum, North American firms pay 24% more than U.K. firms to their managers an directors, though they pay similar amounts to junior marketers. Global firms pay the highest, as do firms with headcounts of between 1,000 and 10,000.

The survey, which had 470 marketing respondents in professional services firms worldwide, also found that law firms pay 12.3% more to marketers than accountancy firms. A free report is available by click here .

Just released: Survey of Billing Rates at Small and Midsize Firms and Solo Practices

The ALM Research Survey Report on Billing Rates and Practices should not be confused with the recently published National Law Journal Billing Survey. While NLJ's survey focuses on the large firms (the NLJ 250), the ALM Research survey studied billing rates and trends in small and midsize firms and solo practices.

This is our first-ever syndicated survey of billing information for this segment of the legal industry; over 5,000 lawyers responded. The report includes analyses of billing rates and alternative billing practices based on firm size, geography, practice area, client industry, number of years in practice, and gender. Pricing information and further details are available for the full report (print and PDF file) or just the PDF file. Contact Chuck Lowry, director of client relations for questions about the survey.

Survey: Corporate Counsel Costs Up 7 Percent

According to this report in The National Law Journal of a new survey from Altman Weil and LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, corporate law department internal spending climbed by 7 percent while outside spending edged up by 1.4 percent at American companies with more than $5 billion in revenue. The increase translates to costs of $346,497 per lawyer, driven chiefly by an average 19.2 percent bump in lawyer compensation and benefits. Outside expenditures now average $616,519 per lawyer, ranging from above $1 million in the chemical manufacturing industry to $251,405 per lawyer in the insurance industry. The survey data, collected from 144 companies in the spring, reflects fiscal year 2006 spending.

2007 Global Hedge Fund Survey

The world’s leading hedge funds managers are more concerned about attracting and retaining talented people and managing growth than anything else, according to the 2007 Global Hedge Fund Survey  “Navigating New Complexities,” published by Ernst & Young. The poll of over 100 top global hedge funds (and fund of funds) managers, collectively managing some US$900 billion in assets, shows that retaining the right people (42%) and managing growth (39%) are the highest level challenges over the next year, compared to just 9% who anticipate investing or developing in new products. Respondents were principals, chief operating officers and chief financial officers at these funds.

Patent and Trademark Office Issues Performance and Accountability Report

According to this report on Docuticker, the USPTO has just issued its FY 2007 Performance and Accountability Report. Patent quality and productivity are at historic highs, according to the USPTO press release. In 2007, patent examiners examined the highest number of applications in history—362,227, and quality compliance was at 96.5%, equaling last year’s results. In addition, patent examiner decisions were upheld by the patent appeals board 69% of the time, up from 51% in 2005.

For the second year in a row, the USPTO exceeded all of its trademark-related performance goals: a record number of applications were examined—323,527. Quality was up 97.4%. And, the average time from filing an initial trademark application to a preliminary decision was below 3 months.

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.

Poll: U.K. Lawyers Over-Confident on Client Service

Lawyers—barristers, that is—in the U.K. rate the quality of service they provide far higher than those who receive it, according to a new poll commissioned by the Bar Standards Board (BSB), according to a recent report in Legal Week . According to the findings of the MORI poll, which surveyed solicitors, prisoners and members of the public as well as barristers between December 2006 and August 2007, 89% of barristers said they were satisfied they spent enough time with their clients. However, just two-thirds (66%) of solicitors agreed – a proportion that dropped to 57% among members of the general public. By contrast, 96% of participants in the survey said barristers are honest, act with integrity and provide ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ advice and guidance. The survey, which will be conducted on a regular basis every two to three years, is in line with a BSB pledge to make evidence-based regulation a cornerstone of its regime.

Survey of Big Deals Shows Balance of Power Shifting

Nixon Peabody’s Sixth Annual MAC Survey showed that sellers were increasingly getting the upper hand, according to this report on the Legal Pad blog. “MAC” stands for “material adverse change” clauses, which are considered a bellwether of the power balance between buyers and sellers, according to the report. MAC clauses give the buyer an “out,” defining conditions under which they can walk away from a deal before it closes. The firm studied public deals in all industries that were valued at more than $100 million (with the high end at $32.9 billion); more than 400 big deals were included in the research.

Add this study to the growing trend in original industry research conducted by law firms. We reported earlier on this blog about Fulbright & Jaworski’s annual Litigation Trends Report and Herbert Smith’s recent survey of ADR policies at leading U.K. companies. If your firm has conducted industry research, let us know by emailing almresearchonline@alm.com so that we can share with readers.

Just Released: Report of Practice Group Management Survey

Altman Weil and ALM Research have just released a report of their survey of Law Firm Practice Group Management, which surveyed law firm leaders across the U.S. about their practice group operations and management. Key findings include the fact that, despite the time and money invested in their practice groups, more that half of law firm managing partners and executive directors surveyed rated overall practice group performance