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4 PLL Persp. 1 (1992-1993)

handle is hein.lbr/aaplper0004 and id is 1 raw text is: 4A.4 The Newsletter of the Private Law Libraries ISIS of the American Association of Law Libraries Volume 4 Issue 1 September! October 1992 SARRINA I. PACIFICI Editor/Desktop Publisher Law Librarians Positioning for 7bmorrow by Holley M. Moyer, Hildebrandt, Inc., Somerville, NJ I was pleased to have been asked to speak at the PLL Luncheon during the 1992 AALL Annual Meeting in San Francisco this past July. The remarks below are a summary of those I made at that time. My position as a consultant within the Hildebrandt organization provides me with a unique perspective on the legal profession. I work with law firms and law departments throughout the U.S. and abroad on both library and non-library issues. These visits not only af- ford me the opportunity to speak with librarians, but also with the lawyers and professional managers in these organizations. From this work, as well as that of my Hildebrandt colleagues, I offer you information on the state of the legal profession and how we, as librarians, can better position ourselves within it. CURRENT STATUS Currently, there are approximately 777,000 law- yers in the United States. This represents a 12% increase over the last five years. Of those, 68% are engaged in private practice and 10% work in corporate law depart- ments. Surprisingly, 57% of those who work in law firms work in firms of 5 or fewer lawyers. Only 11% work in firms of over 50 lawyers. About 40% of all partners in today's law firms came as lateral hires, while almost 90% of corporate lawyers are lateral hires. The position of head, non-lawyer manager in a legal organization is a relatively new one. Just 20 years ago, the Association of Legal Administrators was founded. Since then, the organization has grown to almost 8,000 members. During these recessionary times, administra- tors have been faced with the task of cutting costs and becoming even more bottom-line oriented. Frequently, their compensation has a bonus component tied to their ability to keep under budget. It is no wonder that they are anxious to decrease library costs and become frus- trated when we tell them that we have already cut them to the bone. A factor that complicates the administration of many of today's firms is the rapid expansion of branch offices. This has created increased concern for efficient manage- ment, resource allocation and client development coordi- nation, to say nothing about the added headaches for the library staff. The larger U.S. firms average nine offices each. More than one-third of the attorneys in these firms work in the branch offices. In the next five years, the majority of firm expansion will be international in scope. Cur- rently, there are approximately 260 U.S. branch law offices in over 35 countries. There has been a slowdown in growth during 1991-1992. The number of overseas offices only increased 5% over the previous year. In 1990- 1991, firms grew by 16% abroad. It comes as no surprise that both 1990 and 1991 were difficult years for law firms. Nineteen ninety-two is not proving to be much better. Productivity has been declining while debt, accounts receivable, operational costs and malpractice insurance rates are on the rise. Billing and collection cycles are increasing. This makes it even more difficult to pay for the expensive leaseholds that firms committed to when times were more profit- able. To add insult to injury, clients have become more cost-conscious, asking for alternative billing arrangements that frequently result in decreasing firm profits. In many firms, there are just too many lawyers on the payroll for the work at hand. continued on page 4 Pe-r'~p

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