Law Department Management Blog
Surveys of law departments go on all the time (See my post of Oct, 17, 2005 on the plethora of law-department surveys.), and I implore readers to send word of any to me. I warmly embrace every survey of law departments that I can lay my hands on (See my posts of Oct. 10, 2005: 10 surveys cited in 2005; June 27, 2006: collects 9 surveys by interested parties; and Aug. 5, 2007: suggests several more.).
What I hadn’t realized was how common surveys of law departments are. Metrics buff that I am, I laboriously looked at the 1,000 posts I published in 2007 and looked for ones that drew from a multi-department survey. I have listed them below in chronological order by quarter: an astonishing 72!.
The first quarter started with 18 posts (See my posts of Feb. 11, 2007: ACC’s Seventh Annual Chief Legal Officer Survey on pro bono; Feb. 11, 2007 [four posts]: ACC’s Seventh Annual Chief Legal Officer Survey; Feb. 16, 2007: American Lawyer survey of law firms on markups of contract attorneys; Feb. 18, 2007: Corp. Secretary: corporate responsibility officers; Feb. 19, 2007: Altman Weil/LexisNexis Martindale-Hubble time needed to find outside counsel; Feb. 19, 2007: ACC’s Seventh Annual Chief Legal Officer Survey on firing law firms; March 7, 2007 [Brad Blickstein]: In-house Tech survey; March 9, 2007: International Paralegal Managers Association on billable hours; March 13, 2007: on procurement; March 17, 2007: Legal Week and UK firings of firms; March 26, 2007: InsideCounsel on hiring preferences [four posts]; and March 31, 2007: LexisNexis Martindale-Hubble/Altman Weil on obstacles to alignment with clients.).
During the second quarter of 2007, there were another 21 posts (See my posts of April 8, 2007: InsideCounsel on small firms’ receptivity to alternative fees [two posts]; April 13, 2007: 2006 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey on savings from matter management systems; April 13, 2007: Law Dept. Quarterly on quality management initiatives; April 15, 2007: Lloyds on collective action on legal fees; April 23, 2007: LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell on law departments in Europe; April 27, 2007: Edge Legal Marketing on attendees of LegalTech NY; May 4, 2007: BTI on prestige of firms hired; May 11, 2007: 2006 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey regarding inexperienced law-firm associates; May 23, 2007: Juristes Associes on French law departments and education; May 23, 2007: law firm reputations; May 24, 2007: Canadian Corporate Counsel Association on hours worked per week; May 26, 2007 [two posts] and May 27, 2007: Canadian Corporate Counsel Association on cost control; May 27, 2007: American Arbitration Association; May 4, 2007: PriceWaterhouseCoopers on international arbitration; May 9, 2007: 2006 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey on low numbers of RFP responses; June 18, 2007 on a consultant’s headlines about law departments “firing” law firms; June 16, 2007 [Brad Blickstein]: LexisNexis survey on early case assessment; and June 20, 2007: ALM on preferred counsel overseas.).
In the third quarter, 10 more surveys provided material (See my posts of July 2, 2007: GCR Outside Counsel Management Survey [three posts]; 10, 2007: Legal Week on professional development training; July 17, 2007: InsideCounsel about Different views on cost efforts of law firms; July 19, 2007 [two posts]: InsideCounsel on creativity by law firms; July 27, 2007: InsideCounsel on bill padding; July 29, 2007: InsideCounsel on minor factors in selecting outside counsel; Aug. 5, 2007: ALM and selection of international outside counsel;
The year closed with 23 survey-based posts (See my posts of Oct. 25, 2007: 2006 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey on discounts for early payments of bills; Oct. 26, 2007, 29, Oct. 31, and Dec. 6, 2007: Fulbright & Jaworski’s Fourth Annual Litigation Trends Survey on discovery costs; Nov. 10, 2007: Corporate Board Magazine and FTI Consulting on compliance [five posts]; Nov. 6, 2007 #2: ACC and Empsight with compensation data; Nov. 6, 2007: Hildebrandt on long-term compensation; Nov. 11, 2007: Commerce & Industry (C&I) and BDO Stoy Hayward on value delivered for law firm fees; Nov. 11, 2007: C&I about strengths of the hourly billing model; Nov. 24, 2007: C&I on fixed fees and commitments by law departments; Nov. 28, 30, and Dec. 2, 2007: the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) Oversight Committee on e-billing; Dec. 5, 2007 – two posts: Hildebrandt and little change in basic metrics; Nov. 27, 2007: CMS Cameron McKenna on four cost-control methods; Dec. 12, 2007: Lovells and reporting lines of European GCs; and Dec. 19, 2007: Altman Weil about prohibitions of some associates from working on matters.).