RDA
LEGAL COMMUNIQUE . . .
ROBERT DENNEY Associates, Inc.
Management, Marketing, Strategic Planning
December, 2007
WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT
IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION
This is our 19th annual report on what’s going on in the legal profession in the United States as well
as in other parts of the world. As always, it is based on information we compile throughout the year
from many sources. Some of our findings are obvious. Others are not. Nevertheless, this is the
picture at the beginning of 2008.
PRACTICE AREAS
Hot
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Intellectual Property. Not only patents but also copyrights due to Internet issues. Proposed
legislation may provide copyright protection against knockoffs of high fashion designs because
the devil does not always wear Prada. Also the PTO has adopted new rules.
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Immigration. So hot that a few firms are separating it from Labor & Employment.
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Corporate Investigations. Fastest growing area of White Collar Crime.
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Labor & Employment. More complex than ever, not just due to immigration, but also to new
EEOC rulings, continuing discrimination claims and possible new organization drives by unions.
Complex Litigation. But see “Getting Hot – Mediation” below.
Global Warming. Was Getting Hot in our Midyear Update. California firms were the first to
form this sub-group of Environmental that includes regulatory and insurance issues. Now
Greenberg Traurig has done so.
Domestic Relations/Family Law. Determination of parentage is now a hot issue in Fertility Law
as the result of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo storage.
Pro Bono. Not only as a pay back to the community but also as a recruiting attraction and a
professional development strategy to provide courtroom experience (see “Trends Report” article
in Law Practice, June, 2006).
Estate Planning & Administration. Particularly the latter. Baby Boomers starting to retire.
Elder Law. As we have been reporting. Part of the Estates practice, mostly in smaller firms.
Animal Law. A niche practice that was heating up before the Michael Vick case and the Animal
Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act was signed last May. Not just limited to dogs. Anticruelty laws are felonies in 43 states.
Getting Hot
 Mediation and other forms of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR).
 Libel. Suits against bloggers and message board posting are still increasing.
 Foreclosures. Small firms overcome the low rates with staff/lawyer ratios as high as 10-to-1.
 Art theft & fraud. A small but growing number of lawyers in the U.S. and Europe are focusing
on the recovery of stolen art and historical pieces.
 Bankruptcy. The cycle is swinging back. Could be Hot again by Spring.
 Insurance Coverage. Due to global warming. Was Cool a year ago.
 Post-arbitration litigation. Some experts seeing an increase.
Cooling Off
 Structured Finance/Securitization. Largely due to sub-prime mortgages. But a few firms,
including Patterson Belknap, have started sub-prime counseling practices to help clients deal
with problem loans.
 Mergers & Acquisitions. Deals being cancelled or at least deferred.
What’s Hot – page 2
PRATICE AREAS (cont.)
Cold
 Medical Malpractice. Filings continue to decline due to tort reform in many states while the
percentage of verdicts in favor of health care professionals has increased in some parts of the
country. As a result, insurance defense practices are shrinking and some firms have dissolved.
 Workers Compensation. Here too the number of cases being filed continues to decline.
GEOGRAPHIC MARKETS
 China. Still Hot despite a shortage of legal talent and regulations that limit the work foreign
lawyers may do. McDermott Will & Emery may have found a way around these hurdles by the
strategic alliance it entered into a year ago with Yuan Da Law Offices of Shanghai, reported to
be the first formal arrangement between a Western and a mainland China firm.
 United Arab Emirates. Dubai is White Hot. Patton Boggs and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher are
opening offices there, following other firms that opened there in the last few years.
 Spain. As reported in our Midyear Update.
 Phoenix. Firms from the Upper Midwest and more recently the East continue to expand here
because it is the logical market in the booming Southwest. Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll is
the latest.
MARKETING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
 CRM. As we reported a year ago, firms continue to struggle with business development activity
reporting. No particular system seems to be the answer. Maybe the problem is not so much
technical as it is getting the lawyers to use the system. Also see below.
 Marketing Technology. Jeanne Hammerstrom, CMO at Benesch Friedlander, has hired a
marketing technology specialist to drive the CRM and Competitive and Marketing Intelligence
systems as well as to work with Recruiting and IT on project and practice management for
practice groups.
 Television Advertising. While still frowned-upon by most of the legal profession, it continues to
be the medium of choice for personal injury firms as well as others in the consumer legal market
(radio is second). Now LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell is partnering with Spot Runner, an
Internet-based advertising agency, to create new ads specifically for smaller M-H clients. Ads
developed to-date cover areas such as family law, drunken driving, personal injury and general
practice. Commercials for criminal and immigration are being developed. But sometimes the old
adage, “There’s nothing new under the sun”, still applies, even in legal marketing. Ten years ago
some smaller ad agencies around the country were developing similar off-the-shelf ads – for a
while.
 Print Advertising. Continues to be a medium of choice for large firms. Some have shifted their
strategy from an institutional approach i.e., the firm itself, to featuring practice areas. Cozen
O’Connor and Winthrop & Weinstine were among the first. Now Benesch Friedlander (there’s
that firm again) has launched an interesting campaign, “My Benesch, My Team”.
 Advertising and solicitation. The distinction is specifically addressed within the rules in some
states. However, as the ABA’s Will Hornsby has written, “The ABA Model Rules and the states
that base their regulations on those rules do not set out the distinction clearly. The difference is
important, however . . .” Therefore, marketers and lawyers must be certain of the rules in their
states. This gets even more complicated for the firms with offices in more than one state.
 Martindale-Hubbell. A new surge of challenges from firms questioning the cost of listing in M-H
and whether or not it’s worth it.
 Marketing budgets. Continue to increase as a percentage of firm revenues at both large and
mid-size firms. Many now going beyond the historic 2%. In the UK, marketing budgets have
always been much larger, running as high as 10% in a few of the White Circle firms. In the U.S.
as well as in the UK, the largest accounting firms have been spending that much for years.
 Marketing department staffs. Increasing in size along with the budgets.
What’s Hot – page 3
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The role of the marketing professional. Appears to be changing in several different directions.
Some Chief Marketing Officers have gained recognition from their firms that their function
should be strategic. However, as their departments have grown, a high percentage of CMOs are
having to spend more time on department administration and staff management. And some
firms now expect their CMOs to produce new business i.e., concentrate on sales and business
development. Also see below.
Marketing vs. Business Development. Many firms have not yet realized that these are separate
but symbiotic functions. As we stated in last year’s report, corporations long ago recognized this
and have combined Marketing and Sales under one senior executive so that they supplement and
complement each other. This is another area where law firms should learn from their clients.
Linking blogs and web sites. A new development in online marketing that is being promoted by
Sonny Cohen, Director of Internet Marketing Strategy at Duo Consulting.
Directories and Listings. As subscribers to the LMA’s listserv know, marketers are being
deluged with queries from their lawyers about “Best Lawyers” lists as well as solicitations from
publications promoting them. Since there are reportedly over 700 directories and listings,
marketers must determine which are worthwhile. There are now at least two sources to help.
The RankingsForLawyers blog posts marketing professionals’ opinions on lists and Jaffe
Associates has just produced a Rankings and Publications Report, available on their web site.
OTHER TRENDS & ISSUES
 Intellectual Property Firms. The Conventional Wisdom (CW) has been that they could not
survive on their own and indeed some have merged into large, full-service firms. But IP
boutiques continue to not just survive but thrive. One indication of this is the movement of IP
lawyers and staff from large, general firms back to IP firms.
 New ancillary business. Last Spring Duane Morris received approval from the Pennsylvania
Department of Banking to start a trust company to handle international financial planning for
high net worth émigrés to the U.S.
 Appellate Case Consulting. Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis also formed a new ancillary
business, the Bernard G. Segal Institute for Appellate Advocacy. It provides advice to lawyers
outside the firm in preparing oral arguments. There are plans to also provide advice on writing
briefs.
 Recruiting. While the largest and very elite firms continue to hire more associates, the size of
the classes at most law schools has remained flat. As a result, these firms are increasing the
number of schools at which they recruit, including some lower-rated ones. However, many other
firms are not hiring as many associates because of the recent huge increases in starting salaries.
 Flexible Partnership Tracks. Some firms are eliminating their traditional lock-step partnership
track. In these firms “High Performing” associates are considered after a lesser number of years
while the track is extended for others who develop at a slower pace. Although still rare, a few
firms are promoting to partnership associates who work reduced or flex-time schedules. Weil,
Gotshal & Manges has created the position of “flex-time partner”.
 Rate increases. Major corporations are getting increasingly fed up with firms’ rate increases
(excluding the $1,000/hour lawyers whom they consider worth it). This, along with poor service,
is why many are replacing nearly two-thirds of their primary law firms. Also see below.
 Mid-size firms. The CW is wrong again. Well-managed mid-size firms – and even some small
ones – are not only surviving but are thriving by attracting clients faced with the high rates –
and often poor service – of the large firms.
 Mentoring. A tradition that is making a comeback in many firms because it is one of the most
effective ways to pass on skills, wisdom and professional knowledge to younger lawyers.
 Leadership training. Faced with continued high attrition as well as a generation gap, more firms
are recognizing they need to, not only retain their associates and younger partners, but also
develop them into well-rounded, business-savvy lawyers. As a result they are providing more
management and leadership training (as discussed in our September Legal Communique).
What’s Hot – page 4
OTHER TRENDS & ISSUES (cont.)
 Post-merger integration. As a result of the continuing wave of mergers and lateral entries, firms
are placing more emphasis on integrating these new lawyers to reduce subsequent fall-out.
 Law Office Design. Changes continue. Lawyers’ offices are shrinking and so are libraries. Some
firms, such as Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman, now have “break rooms” as gathering places.
Others have created flex space. Vinson & Elkins’ Houston office even has its own Starbucks.
 Work/Life issues. Women now account for 60 percent of the new entrants into UK law firms and
18 percent of them are from minority ethnic groups. As a result, these firms have followed the
example of U.S. firms by focusing on the challenges faced by working parents.
 Off-Shoring. Corporate legal departments and many large firms have been outsourcing routine
support services but mostly within the U.S. Two years ago Acccenture, the global management
consulting firm, began sending some of its routine legal work to Mauritius. That marked the
start of a trend for legal departments and law firms to off-shore some of their “commodity” legal
work to such locations as India and the Philippines.
 Virtual assistants. Another form of outsourcing that is just starting. VAs are paralegals and
administrative specialists who work offsite and online to handle certain legal projects.
 Partner buy-in. According to the Law Office Management & Administration Report for 2007,
only 65% of the firms surveyed require new partners to buy into their firms compared to 85% two
years ago. Not a healthy trend since it tends to foster an “employee mentality” among partners.
 De-equitization. Becoming a buzz word as large law firms fire or demote partners to boost net
income/partner and to keep or attract big producers. Also see “Mandatory retirement” below.
 Calls for killing the billable hour. They’re back again thanks to recent articles by Scott Turow
and Herb Denenberg (former Insurance Commissioner in PA). However critics of the BH fail to
come up with a solution or ignore the fact that a number of alternatives already exist.
 Non-lawyer bios on web sites. A handful of firms, mostly smaller, have been posting photos and
bios of the administrative and staff personal on their web sites for some time. One of the firms
that recently began to do so is Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean, Marketing Director Lydia
Bednerik reports favorable feedback from clients as well as enthusiastic support from staff.
 Staff on committees. Many firms have committees comprised of just staff. Now some firms are
including staff with lawyers on other committees such as Technology, Marketing and Strategic
Planning. These firms are seeing, not only improved staff retention and morale, but also new
and worthwhile ideas as well as improved implementation of plans and programs.
 Do-It-Yourself Tort Reform. Launched in 2002, Medical Justice is a membership-based
organization designed to complement tort reform and head off frivolous lawsuits. After five
years the company, which is “top heavy” with physicians in high-risk practices, reports that its
members are sued at a rate of under 2% a year vs. the rate for the average doctor of 8%-12%.
 Mandatory retirement. The $27.5 million settlement in the Sidley Austin age-discrimination
case, combined with recently adopted policies by some trade associations, may cause firms to rethink their mandatory retirement policies.
 Firm management. The trend of having managing partners designated as CEOs continues to
grow – and not just in large firms. Some mid-size firms with as few as 100 layers now have fulltime CEOs. The main reason: They have recognized that the practice of law is a profession but
a law firm is a business.
Note: There are other developments which we could not include. Discussions of them, as well as
of some of the items in this report, are posted in the Writing and Legal Communiques sections on
our web site, www.robertdenney.com.
May the Holidays bring you joy and peace that continues throughout the coming year.
ROBERT DENNEY Associates, Inc.
110 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, PA • 610-964-1938 • fax: 610-964-7956
email: bob@robertdenney.com • web site: www.robertdenney.com