ALMResearchBlog

Data Content 09

I've just returned from a conference called Data Content 09 run by Infocommerce Group.  To oversimplify, the gist of the two day conference is how companies can use data to create new products, improve current products, collect additional data or license existing data for others to use.

Being in the research and marketing business - content is king.  I know you've heard that before, so have I.  What made me actually pay attention this time is the new ways companies are using different forms of data to enhance their businesses.  User generated content, was a big topic.  Customer reviews and self-submitted profiles continue to grow - and as one participant pointed out - as they grow, the volume of information that gets collected makes them more valuable, and actually drives more user generated content.  Mobile was another big topic.  It's amazing how many iphone apps exist, and even more amazing how many people pay for them and use them.  The question of the day was not "should we develop an iphone app?  it was "what iphone app should we develop?"

How does content relate to your law firm competitive intelligence and business development? 

Well think about your CRM system;  Are you using it to it's fullest?  Capturing as much information as possible on each contact and centralizing that data so that others in the firm with the same contact can append their info? Making them all search-able by practice area, geography, company, industry etc?

How about billing and collections?  Do you know what your realization rates are?  By practice?  Or office?  That information is available in the market to benchmark and compare.  (Full disclosure:  yes, that is a survey that we sell.)

Compensation is another area. And as the market continues to be difficult, many firms are looking at aggressive compensation plans based on performance metrics other than just hours billed. 

Bottom line is that there are plenty of places to look within a law firm, or company, to find information that will either help you run more efficiently, or will create new opportunities for business.

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.

What Does ‘Non-Equity’ Really Mean?

Jim Cotterman posted this thought-provoking item question on the Altman Weil Blog, and went to explicate the meaning of “equity” and “non-equity.” He noted that 85% of firms with 100+ lawyers use the non-equity structure, and that those “partners” (his use of the quote marks) are “slightly more likely to be treated as W-2 employees for tax purposes, and the range of opinions on the subject ranges from cynicism (the firm is just trying to get their PPEP up) to advocating (an alternative for seasoned lawyers who want to stay, but don’t want to become business owners).

In the annual Am Law 100/200, the following definitions are used in order to distinguish between the two types of partners: “Equity Partners are those who file a Schedule K-1 tax form and receive no more than half their compensation on a fixed-income basis. Nonequity Partners are those who receive more than half their compensation on a fixed basis.”
 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

State Court Organization, 1987-2004

The Law Librarian Blog passed along this piece of news: the Bureau of Justice Statistics has published a report from State Court Organization data collections covering the years 1987-2004. As described by the BOJ, the report examines changes in the organization and operations of the Nation’s state trial and appellate courts over this time period. Topics include the selection and educational requirements of judges, regulations of criminal and civil juries, the development of unified court systems, and adjustments in court management and staffing to address growing caseloads.

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.