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.

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 .

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. 

Salaries: 2008 Guide from Robert Half Legal

Thanks to Geoffrey Gussis, who writes on Careers for the In-House Blog, for the tip that the 2008 Robert Half Legal Salary Guide  is now available. Gussis focused on the news for corporate attorneys: “In-house attorneys will see average gains of 3.8 percent over 2007 levels. First year associates can expect annual base compensation to rise 4.9 percent to between $63,750 and $91,000. Average starting salaries for licensed attorneys with 10 or more years of experience will rise 4.1 percent, to the range of $126,000 to $210,750 annually.” But the guide provides information for law firm attorneys also, as well as for paralegals, legal secretaries, and other legal support staff.

And don't forget that we offer a free Associate Salary Update spreadsheet to subscribers, which is free to non-subscribers with the purchase of one other product from the ALM Research Store. For more information, contact [email protected] or call 888-770-5647.

Surveys: Fulbright & Jaworski Releases New Litigation Trends Report

Texas powerhouse Fulbright & Jaworski has just released its 2008 Litigation Trends Report, which was reviewed by Larry Bodine on his marketing blog.  As Bodine notes, senior counsel in the U.S. (253 respondents) and U.K.(50 respondents) were surveyed for their experiences and opinions about various aspects of litigation-related matters. Some of the key findings were: The number of lawsuits filed against companies in the survey appears to be down from last year, returning to levels similar to 2005, but suits with $20 million or more at stake are on the rise. Almost 40% of the largest companies surveyed spent $5 million or more annually on litigation, excluding settlements and awards. Companies in the United Kingdom are more likely to spend more money on regulatory matters than their American counterparts.

To get a copy of the survey, fill out a request form here.

ALM Research E-Newsletter: Tech Focus

The October/November issue of the ALM Research e-newsletter, NewsLine, went out today. The focus of this issue is Technology. Technology surveys, technology studies, technology reports. Ratings of products, rankings of law firms, products law firms and legal departments are using, trends in budgets and salaries, trends in purchasing.

If you're not already a subscriber to the newsletter, you can access the current NewsLine by clicking here and you can subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here.

Associate Salaries: Story of the Year?

It’s one of the most popular topics on the blog. Mention “salaries” or “compensation” and the links light up. In response to one of our last postings on the subject, a reader, “Judy,” suggested that we mention LawWages.com, a “comprehensive career portal and resource center” for the legal profession. Of course, our parent company, ALM Media, also sponsors the LawJobs.com site, which includes a salary calculator from Salary.com.

We reported last month on American Lawyer’s September feature and rankings having to do with associate salaries. And blogger Dennis Kennedy did a great round-up of links to on-going buzz about associate salaries (“Recruiting, Paying and Retaining Lawyers: Quite a Discussion Going”).

So, we’ll mention once again that we’re offering a spreadsheet of updated salary information for NLJ 250 firms and beyond. This file is free to subscribers, and free to anyone else who has purchased a product from the ALM Research Store recently. To get the link, just send an email to [email protected], asking for the Associate Salary Update.

Global 100: Coverage on the Other Side of the Pond

We’ve seen the coverage in The American Lawyer, but it’s interesting to see what they have to say at Legal Week about the recently-released Global 100, a joint reporting effort of the two magazines. Yes, there are few firms that aren’t from the U.S. or U.K. that wind up on the list each year—Canada, Australia, France, Spain, and Holland also have giant-size firms. But the majority of Global 100 firms are based in the U.S. or U.K., with two U.K. “magic circle” firms taking the top spots.

And what was Legal Week’s take on this year’s rankings?  Headline: Global 100: international converts put pressure on Wall Street’s elite. In other words, national U.S. firms that have been in expansion mode (such as Latham & Watkins, Dechert, and Morgan Lewis & Bockius), along with London-based international firms (Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Allen & Overy) are moving into “Skadden” territory. Legal Week quotes Freshfield’s management as explaining it this way: “There are two trends that can explain why the New York firms are not growing as fast as the European and national US firms. Firstly, they are less inclined to follow the international model and, secondly, the growth of London as a financial centre relative to New York.” And Skadden’s executive partner concurred: “London has become an increasing priority to US firms with significant capital markets practices over the past half-a-dozen years and this will continue to be the case.”

The full data set from the 2007 Global 100 is available from ALM Research Online for both subscribers and non-subscribers. Archival data, starting in 1997, is available to subscribers only.

Survey: Skadden is the Standard-Bearer, DC Firms Lag

According to this report from the blog of our sister publication in Washington, DC, Legal Times, a new survey report published by BTI Consulting Group reveals the unsurprising news that Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is the standard-bearer among corporate law firms. BTI’s survey asked corporate counsel, among other things, what firms were getting the most work. Their research identified eight other firms as power players in the transactions market: Baker & McKenzie; Jones Day; Mayer Brown; McDermott Will & Emery; Sidley Austin; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and Vinson & Elkins. As for Washington-based firms, they aren’t leading the pack, the blog writer said.