NEW YORK (February 3, 2012)- Better Buildings, the leading New York regional magazine for the building management and maintenance community in the 1980’s, has been retooled as a national publication and relaunched as a quarterly supplement to ALM’s Real Estate Forum. In its new form, Better Buildings will focus on the bottom-line challenges of property operations.

“Our annual reader survey indicated a need for more serious, in-depth articles on best practices for building operations and management,” said Michael G. Desiato, Vice President and Group Publisher of ALM’s Real Estate Media Division. “We have set our sights on meeting that request.”

The new Better Buildings will kick-off in the February/March Annual Review issue of Forum and will go behind the scenes to examine what’s happening in the area of building-performance strategies and the associated bottom-line savings. More information is available at http://reforum.com/betterbuildings/.

The new publication will be under the direction of Content Director John Salustri, who served as Editor of the magazine in its earlier form. “Better Buildings was the must-read information source for the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region,” said Salustri, a 24-year industry veteran. “We decided it was time for a national Better Buildings designed as both a print and digital platform for the new generation of property professionals who see day-to-day operations as a key expression of overall asset-management strategy.”

Better Buildings will report on the leaders and innovators who drive the industry, probe practices that are allowing real estate owners to add value to their properties in a competitive market, and highlight the technologies they use to bring their missions to life. It will include building profiles, product reviews, expert columns and features exploring such topics as energy performance, construction solutions, adaptive re-use trends, design innovations, and changing tenant expectations.

Its circulation will encompass approximately 54,000 executive-level decision makers via print and digital editions, covering a broad spectrum of commercial real estate endeavors from office, retail, residential and industrial structures to schools, hospitals, museums, government facilities and hotels.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal and commercial real estate sectors. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Fred Rackmil
Rackmil Associates
Phone: 212-421-0044
E-mail: fred@rackmil.com

NEW YORK (February 1, 2012)- ALM’s The American Lawyer found that 2011 was a boom year for lateral hiring, if not for business, as nearly 2,500 partners left or joined the nation’s 200 largest law firms, 22 percent more than in 2010. Even discounting the dissolution of the Howrey firm, which accounted for 208 laterals, the 12-month period ending September 30, 2011, showed a 12 percent rise from the prior year.

“While 2010’s lateral slowdown was due, in part, to economic uncertainty, this year’s uptick doesn’t mean that the boom years are back,” wrote reporter Victor Li in the lead story of the February issue’s Lateral Report, available at www.americanlawyer.com. “In a stagnant economy, firms seek to expand market share and increase profits by poaching top performers from competitors.” Lawyers in some practice areas, like cross-border M&A, were particularly sought after.

The top gainers of lateral partners among the Am Law 200 were DLA Piper with 87, Jones Day with 59 and K&L Gates with 49. Last year’s biggest losers, aside from Howrey, were K&L Gates with 69, McDermott Will with 36 and Hunton & Williams with 34.

The American Lawyer also identifies and discusses last year’s most prominent lateral transactions and takes a feature-length look at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s complex effort to recruit local practitioners for its Hong Kong office. In a market where other U.S.-based firms had already snapped up most candidates, Simpson Thacher reached out to Magic Circle firms and found Linklaters’ Celia Lam and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Christopher Wong, both of whom were happy to give up firm management roles to practice fulltime.

Access to the full results of the Am Law 200 laterals survey, along with monthly updates, can be purchased from ALM Legal Intelligence at http://www.almlegalintelligence.com/LateralPartnerMoves.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal and commercial real estate sectors. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Fred Rackmil
Rackmil Associates
Phone: 212-421-0044
E-mail: fred@rackmil.com

NEW YORK (January 25, 2012)-ALM’s Law Journal Press, a leading publisher of print and digital publications for legal professionals, today announced the publication of Wage & Hour Collective and Class Litigation, co-authored by Noah A. Finkel, Brett C. Bartlett and Andrew M. Paley, with Richard L. Alfred as senior editor. All are partners at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

Wage & Hour Collective and Class Litigation focuses on a rapidly growing area of litigation. Written from the defense perspective, it covers every step of a case, from complaint to certification, trial, verdict, settlement or dismissal. It is available in print and in an online edition, enhanced for the Web. A detailed table of contents, as well as ordering information for this and other Law Journal Press publications, is available at www.lawcatalog.com.

The new guide has already received high praise. The Honorable Elaine L. Chao, the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor, states: “Given the recent explosion of wage and hour litigation, both management- and plaintiff-side attorneys will find this publication to be an invaluable reference. With its painstaking attention to the law and procedure, this treatise will certainly be the go-to resource when practitioners ponder questions of strategy and substance in the context of wage and hour cases.”

Wage & Hour Collective and Class Litigation examines the complex rules surrounding all types of wage and hour lawsuits: claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), claims under state wage and hour laws, “hybrid” cases involving both, and special issues involving government contractors. It explains how to proceed upon receipt of a wage and hour claim, how to assess the merits of the claim, whether to settle, how to oppose plaintiffs’ motion to facilitate notice for conditional certification, how to handle discovery issues in class and collective actions, what the best trial and settlement strategies are, and how to tilt the odds in the defense’s favor.

The co-authors of Wage & Hour Collective and Class Litigation are all co-chairs of Seyfarth Shaw’s Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Group. Finkel is based in the firm’s Chicago office, Bartlett in Atlanta and Paley in Los Angeles. Alfred, the senior editor, is Chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Group and is based in Boston. All have considerable expertise in the defense of complex federal and state wage and hour litigation and have written and lectured widely on the subject.

Law Journal Press, a division of ALM, publishes more than 130 books, in print and in digital online and mobile formats, on a broad range of legal and business topics. Written by leading lawyers and experts and updated regularly, Law Journal Press editions offer definitive and timely information, insightful analysis and practitioner-oriented guidance for the legal profession.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal and commercial real estate sectors. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Daryn Teague
Teague Communications
Phone: 661.297.5292
E-mail: dteague@teaguecommunications.com

NEW YORK (January 23, 2012)-ALM’s LegalTech New York, the largest and most prestigious legal technology event in the world, opens next Monday at The Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan.

The event will take place January 30 – February 1, 2012, and features 19 tracks of educational programming, including three keynote presentations, emerging technology sessions, super sessions and town-hall style presentations over the course of three days. Keynote presentations begin at 9:00 am each day and will be delivered by nationally recognized speakers:

• Monday, January 30th: John Frank, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief of Staff at Microsoft Legal and Corporate Affairs. Frank will discuss the challenges and opportunities of building effective compliance programs in his keynote, “Ethical Business in a Global Economy: Preventing Corruption and Bribery.” This session is eligible for a complimentary ethics CLE credit.
• Tuesday, January 31st: Don Tapscott, Chairman of Moxie Insight, member of the World Economic Forum, Adjunct Professor of Management in the Rothman School of Management at the University of Toronto, co-author of Macrowikinomics and Wikinomics, and author of Grown-up Digital. Tapscott’s keynote, “Generations, Innovations & Practical Applications: What They Mean to Your Practice,” will discuss how technology has transformed our world.
• Wednesday, February 1st: Kevin Genirs, General Counsel for Investment Banking at Barclays Capital and former General Counsel at Lehman Brothers. Genirs’s keynote address, “2008 vs. 2011: Lessons from a Lehman Insider,” will provide a unique behind-the-scenes account of the final days of Lehman and its relevance to the challenges facing the financial world today. This session is eligible for a complimentary CLE credit.

All keynote presentations take place in the Hilton’s Grand Ballroom West.

LegalTech New York is expected to attract over 12,000 attendees and will feature more than 350 exhibiting companies offering a wide range of legal technology products and services. The 2012 show will offer a selection of more than 50 educational sessions on topics ranging from electronic discovery and information management to cloud computing and law practice management. Attendees are eligible to earn up to 16.8 CLE credits, including as many as 5.5 CLE ethics credits, over the course of the show.

For a complete conference agenda, exhibitor list and other details, visit www.legaltechshow.com.

LegalTech is presented by ALM Events, a leading producer of educational and networking events for business leaders and professionals. Other ALM events include ALM Legal Conferences, Insight Information Conferences and the RealShare Conference series for commercial real estate professionals.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal and commercial real estate sectors. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Daryn Teague
Teague Communications
Phone: 661.297.5292
E-mail: dteague@teaguecommunications.com

NEW YORK (January 10, 2012)-ALM’s Law Technology News today announced the winners in its ninth annual “LTN Innovation Awards” recognizing outstanding achievement by legal professionals in their use of technology.

The winners include:

Champion of Technology — U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck
IT Director of the Year — Craig Bingham of Bass, Berry & Sims
Large Law Firm — Mallesons Stephen Jaques
Small Law Firm — Ward and Smith
Corporate Law Department — John Deere
Pro Bono — Minnesota Legal Services Coalition

Award nominations for all six categories were solicited from the magazine’s subscribers and through the publication’s website. The award recipients were selected by an independent panel of three judges, all members of LTN’s Editorial Advisory Board. Additional information on the awards and winners will be available in the February 2012 issue of Law Technology News and on the magazine’s website at www.lawtechnologynews.com.

“Legal technologists are too often unsung heroes within their organizations,” said Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News. “These awards recognize and honor their leadership, and hopefully inspire our community to continue to create ‘better, faster and cheaper’ technologies that help our profession and those we serve.”

The awards will be presented on January 30, at the conclusion of the opening day keynote address at LegalTech New York 2012, the premier legal technology event that takes place January 30 – February 1, 2012, at The Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan. LegalTech New York is expected to attract more than 12,000 attendees and will feature more than 350 exhibiting companies. For more information, visit www.legaltechshow.com.

Law Technology News provides timely information and insight into the latest technologies, products and services available for the legal marketplace, as well as analysis and commentary from by industry experts and senior law firm and corporate counsel decision makers. It is distributed to more than 40,000 selected subscribers and is available on at www.lawtechnologynews.com. The magazine is published by ALM.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal and commercial real estate sectors. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Daryn Teague
Teague Communications
Phone: 661.297.5292
E-mail: dteague@teaguecommunications.com

NEW YORK (January 9, 2012)- ALM blogs were rated at or near the top in four categories of the fifth annual “Blawg 100” legal blog competition, published by the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal.

• In the Labor & Employment blog category, Texas Lawyer’s Work Matters (http://texaslawyer.typepad.com/work_matters/), written by contributor Michael P. Maslanka and edited by managing editor Anne McMillan, took first-place honors.

• Among general legal news blogs, ALM won two of the five top spots with the Blog of Legal Times (http://legaltimes.typepad.com/) and the Am Law Daily (http://amlawdaily.typepad.com).

• In the Law Practice Management category, The American Lawyer’s The Careerist (http://thecareerist.typepad.com/) blog, written by senior reporter Vivia Chen, took second place.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal and commercial real estate sectors. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Fred Rackmil
Rackmil Associates
Phone: 212-421-0044
E-mail: fred@rackmil.com

NEW YORK (January 3, 2012) –ALM, a leading provider of news and business information to the legal and real estate industries, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell to publish special reports of top rated lawyers, law firms and women attorneys in more than two dozen major U.S. markets nationwide.

Under the terms of agreement, Martindale-Hubbell will be the exclusive provider of content for the various projects, relying on its attorney database that has served as the authoritative resource to the worldwide legal profession for more than 140 years. ALM’s Custom Projects Division will then use that content to create Top Rated Lawyer, Top Ranked Law Firms and Women Leaders in the Law publications and special sections in more than 25 publications nationally in 2012. The partners will also collaborate on the development of approximately 25 Top Rated Lawyer special sections that will be published within various ALM legal publications.

The methodology used in the reports will vary based on the specific editorial theme, but to create each of them LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell will tap its comprehensive Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings that identify lawyers who have been rated by their peers as pre-eminent attorneys.

“Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings are driven by the confidential opinions of lawyers and members of the judiciary who receive invitations from LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell to provide reviews of lawyers of whom they have professional knowledge,” explained Lester Goodman, director of ALM Custom Projects. “These ratings are the ‘Gold Standard’ in the legal profession because they factor in both professional skills and ethical standards, and because they have long served as an objective evaluation tool for members of the legal profession.”

According to Goodman, the new partnership with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell has already resulted in an initial project, the Top Ranked Law Firms section that was just published in the December 2011 issue of Fortune magazine.

“We’re delighted to team up with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell on this ambitious nationwide project, an opportunity that grew out of the strategic initiative forged by our two companies earlier this year,” said Goodman. “Beyond the publication of these supplements and special sections, we are also exploring a number of additional venues for identifying and recognizing the pre-eminent lawyers in the U.S. legal profession. These forums not only honor the leaders of our profession, but also create unique marketing opportunities for providers of legal services in major markets coast to coast.”

About ALM Legal Intelligence
ALM Legal Intelligence offers detailed business information for and about the legal industry, focused on the top U.S. and international law firms. The division’s online research Web service, www.almlegalintelligence.com, provides subscribers with direct, on-demand access to ALM Legal Intelligence’s extensive database of surveys, rankings and lists related to law firms and the legal industry. ALM Legal Intelligence is a division of ALM.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news, research and information, focused primarily on the legal services industry and commercial real estate. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Daryn Teague
Teague Communications
Phone: 661.297.5292
E-mail: dteague@teaguecommunications.com

NEW YORK (January 3, 2012)- ALM’s The American Lawyer has awarded a second consecutive Litigation Department of the Year award to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher – unprecedented in the decade-old competition — citing the firm’s extraordinary string of significant victories in landmark cases. Runners-up for the biennial prize, which is based on results in the two-year period ending last July, were Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Mayer Brown; O’Melveny & Myers; Sidley Austin; and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

“We initially didn’t want to give the award to the same firm two times in a row,” said Editor in Chief Robin Sparkman, “but it was hard to argue with Gibson, Dunn’s spectacular work for Wal-Mart, proponents of gay marriage, former AIG executive Joseph Cassano, and Chevron—among many other clients.”

The January issue of The American Lawyer, posted at www.americanlawyer.com, also recognizes top firms in three litigation specialties, and for the first time selects three Litigators of the Year:

• Product Liability Litigation Department of the Year. Winner: Shook, Hardy and Bacon. Finalists: King & Spalding and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

• Labor and Employment Litigation Department of the Year. Winner: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Finalists: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Proskauer Rose.

• Intellectual Property Litigation Department of the Year. Winner: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner. Finalists: Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

• Litigators of the Year. Winners: David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Joshua Rosenkranz of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and Anton Valukas of Jenner & Block. Finalists: James Hurst of Winston & Strawn; William Lee of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; Theodore Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Diane Sullivan of Dechert; and Charles Verhoeven of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Separately, The American Lawyer looked back at 2011’s “Newsmakers of the Year”, profiling such legal headliners as U.S. district court judge Jed Rakoff, who refused to sign off on a Securities and Exchange Commission settlement with Citigroup Inc.; the lawyers at Quinn Emanuel and Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman who sued many of the world’s largest banks on behalf of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; and U.S. attorney Preet Bharara for his wide-ranging insider-trading investigation.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal and commercial real estate sectors. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Fred Rackmil
Rackmil Associates
Phone: 212-421-0044
E-mail: fred@rackmil.com

NEW YORK (December 19, 2011) –ALM, a leading provider of news and business information to the legal and real estate industries, today announced that it has signed an agreement with the Philadelphia Bar Association in which ALM will serve as the exclusive publishing agent of the association’s attorney directory, magazine and newspaper.

The Philadelphia Bar Association, founded in 1802, is the oldest association of lawyers in the United States and is a keystone in the ongoing developments of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania legal systems. ALM’s The Legal Intelligencer is the oldest daily law journal published in the United States, and serves the legal community of Philadelphia, the surrounding areas, and the entire state of Pennsylvania. The paper was founded in 1843 by Philadelphia attorney Henry E. Wallace.

“This three-year agreement returns ALM to the role of publishing partner with the Philadelphia Bar Association, a valued relationship we enjoyed for many years,” said Hal Cohen, publisher of The Legal Intelligencer. “In addition to the specific contracted publications we will now be producing for the Bar, the deal opens the door for additional opportunities for joint products, product tie-ins, and cross promotion between our two organizations.”

According to Cohen, there are three central components to the agreement:

• Annual Legal Directory
In addition to an updated print directory, ALM will create a brand new, much more robust and user friendly online directory, which will be updated on an ongoing basis throughout the year. The directory will be available as a mobile version as well.
• Quarterly The Philadelphia Lawyer Magazine
The Bar’s flagship magazine will be produced and distributed quarterly (March, June, Sept., Dec.) as both a print and as a digital edition.
• Monthly Philadelphia Bar Reporter Newspaper
ALM will produce and distribute the association’s monthly newspaper in both print and digital editions. The first edition in 2012 will be mid-January, all subsequent editions will be published on the first day of the month.

In addition to all of the above, ALM will sell sponsorships to targeted bar association events throughout the year.

“We are excited about working with ALM again as the Philadelphia Bar Association’s official publishing agent,” said Rudolph Garcia, Chancellor of the Association.  “ALM’s extensive knowledge of Philadelphia’s legal community and suite of editorial products and services will complement the high standards of quality and professionalism that characterize the oldest association of lawyers in America and its award-winning print and electronic communications.”

About ALM Legal Intelligence
ALM Legal Intelligence offers detailed business information for and about the legal industry, focused on the top U.S. and international law firms. The division’s online research Web service, www.almlegalintelligence.com, provides subscribers with direct, on-demand access to ALM Legal Intelligence’s extensive database of surveys, rankings and lists related to law firms and the legal industry. ALM Legal Intelligence is a division of ALM.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news, research and information, focused primarily on the legal services industry and commercial real estate. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Daryn Teague
Teague Communications
Phone: 661.297.5292
E-mail: dteague@teaguecommunications.com

NEW YORK (December 13, 2011) –Despite a modest economic recovery since the financial crisis of 2008, the unrelenting pressure from clients on U.S. law firms to reduce the legal fees they charge continues to have a significant impact on law firm staffing models, according to a new survey from ALM Legal Intelligence.

The November 2011 survey of partners, associates and paralegals at Am Law 200 law firms assessed the impact of deleveraging on staffing structure, performance management, client relations and morale. The survey report, “Life After Leverage: New Models of Law Firm Staffing,” is available now at www.almlegalintelligence.com/NewStaffingModels.

“When times were good, law firms profited from a process known as leveraging. They charged high fees for legal work done by armies of inexperienced associates who were paid a fraction of the compensation received by the partners but were also much less productive,” said Nigel Holloway, vice president of research at ALM Legal Intelligence. The trend peaked in 2008 when there were 67,600 associates employed by the 250 largest U.S. law firms. By 2010, this number had fallen 11 percent to 60,377, but during the same period the number of partners declined only marginally, by less than one percent. “That is a significant amount of deleveraging at America’s largest law firms,” added Holloway.

Clients are increasingly reluctant to pay for junior associates perceived as unproductive, but they will still pay higher fees for the work of experienced partners. The survey found that the trend of deleveraging is likely to continue. The largest share of respondents — 61 percent — said that partners have been doing more of the work relative to associates in the past three years. This number falls to 45 percent when asked about the next three years, but this is still the largest proportion of respondents. If the U.S. economy deteriorates during this period, deleveraging may accelerate.

The survey also indicates that paralegals will become more important as clients continue to demand lower fees. Respondents were asked which category of staff should be increased in their practice area and the largest proportion (52%) said paralegals. More of the routine legal work will be farmed out to legal process outsourcing (LPO) providers. But another type of outsourcing has emerged for more substantive legal work. Law firms and corporate counsel are turning to staffing firms to provide them with highly qualified attorneys on a project-by-project basis for more complex matters, even, in rare cases, for M&A advisory work.

Another interesting finding from the survey was that performance measurements at law firms are becoming more stringent. Instead of measuring performance based primarily on billable hours, firms are emphasizing business development skills and industry expertise through more frequent evaluations. Sixty-four percent of respondents said that a more rigorous evaluation system had been introduced in the past few years, with 35 percent saying that performance had improved and 34 percent reporting it had made no appreciable difference. Law firms may need to link pay to job performance before performance improves further. Fifty-four percent of respondents said it was the most important way to retain staff and remain competitive.

About ALM Legal Intelligence
ALM Legal Intelligence offers detailed business information for and about the legal industry, focused on the top U.S. and international law firms. The division’s online research Web service, www.almlegalintelligence.com, provides subscribers with direct, on-demand access to ALM Legal Intelligence’s extensive database of surveys, rankings and lists related to law firms and the legal industry.  ALM Legal Intelligence is a division of ALM.

About ALM
ALM, an integrated media company, is a leading provider of specialized business news, research and information, focused primarily on the legal services industry and commercial real estate. ALM’s market-leading brands include The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum. Headquartered in New York City, ALM was formed in 1997. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

ALM, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, GlobeSt.com, Insight Conferences, Law.com, Law Journal Press, LegalTech, The National Law Journal and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of ALM Media Properties, LLC or affiliated entities.

Media Contact:
Daryn Teague
Teague Communications
Phone: 661.297.5292
E-mail: dteague@teaguecommunications.com