Case Histories: How do firms use the ALM Research database for business development purposes?
How are other firms using data from the ALM Research Online database? That’s one of the key questions one of our client relations reps, Seth Ludman, says he is asked on a regular basis. The answer is that they are using the data in a great variety of ways to support business development and sales. Here are a few examples from Seth and from Chuck Lowry, director of client relations for ALM Research.
1. We Have an Office There; They Don’t
A large firm was doing an RFP for a manufacturer. The firm knew who their competition was likely to be, and they knew the manufacturer had an office in a particular location in China.
So, using information from the most recent NLJ 250 – which includes data for the number of lawyers at each office of each firm—they were able to show that theirs was the only firm that had an office in China, which meant they would be able to cover both the U.S. and the Chinese end of operations for the client.
2. Do They Have a Relationship? Or Are They Shopping Around?
A subscribing law firm from Canada decided to look at five years’ worth of Big Deals and Big Suits data, which consists of information about major transactions and litigation, and which law firms and lawyers were involved. The Canadian firm’s intent was to find deals with a strong trans-border, i.e. Canadian, component and find out which Canadian law firms the U.S. firms customarily used.
When they found that a U.S. firm used the same Canadian firms over and over, they didn’t pursue a relationship with that U.S. firm, as it was clear that there was a long-established relationship in place. But when they found that a U.S. firm had used a wide variety of Canadian firms, none of which was mentioned more than once or twice in the data—they knew they had found the possible beginnings of a valuable relationship, and began putting a presentation together.
3. If You Build It, They Will Go … and Develop Business
At one firm, the IT group built a program for mining information from the Big Deals and Big Suits workbook. For those not familiar with this product, the second page, or tab, of the workbook contains the names of the partners who worked on the deal or suits. Many of these partners, the firm realized, were the partners who compete head-to-head with their partners.
The data-mining program was used to cull this information; the information is now sent to practice area heads at the firm, so they have a clear idea of who their competition is, on a very personal level.
The same program, by the way, also culls the names of alumni from the firm mentioned in the Big Deals and Big Suits data, and these names are then forwarded to the attorney development section at the firm.
4. Know Thyself, Know Thy Competition
A partner was planning to make a call on Corporation ABC to talk about corporate governance. In preparation, he had a variety of information prepared in advance, all culled from reports such as the Diversity Scorecard (which includes stats on number of female lawyers at the firms, as well as diversity statistics), and the Pro Bono Survey.
Of course, he had already gotten information from the Corporate Representation (Who Counsels Who) data, as well as Big Deals and Big Suits and In-House Law Departments. These sources gave him intelligence about who his competitors were in specific practice areas, and who the primary contacts for key practice areas were inside the corporate legal department, as well as who the current General Counsel was, how long the GC had been on the job, and even where the GC had gone to law school.
But why was he bothering with the information about diversity and good works? Because public corporations are held to a certain level of accountability about the diversity of their employees, including their outside counsel. And because good pro brono rankings are one tangible way to demonstrate the firm’s good citizenship. And being able to show improvement over time is another way to hammer those points home.
Did we forget to mention that he also went to that meeting knowing the same information about his primary competition? Not only who they were, but how they looked in comparison with his firm, in the areas of diversity and pro bono work.
5. Competitor Metrics
How do firms identify the competition, as well as size them up? One firm takes a look at where they rank among The Am Law 200. And then they look at the firms that are within five ranks above them, and five ranks below them.
And then they pull the data over five years’ time for their own firm, and these 10 other firms—all the financials (revenue, profits per partner, revenue per lawyer, value per lawyer), and the demographics from the NLJ 250 (number of associates, partners, other lawyers). They also pull data from the Lateral Partner Moves data to see who is acquiring partners in certain practice areas, and who’s losing them.
The result is a set of metrics to use in strategic planning, for both budgets and business development meetings. You can just imagine the PowerPoint graphs now.
|
