Page 26 - 2019 - Leaders in Legal Business (q)
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Journal, and other regional newspapers. ALM continued acquiring and by 2010 had established a
presence in eight of the top 10 U.S. legal markets, in addition to international publications. Dolan
Media acquired Lawyers Weekly, a publisher of weekly newspapers in Massachusetts and various
secondary markets, and combined it with other regional publications. The two companies became
the largest legal news and current awareness companies. The emergence of the Internet spawned
a new era of innovation in business of law coverage. The Greedy Associates message boards
enabled newly hired associates to share compensation information at the largest law firms. Above
the Law was founded in 2006, providing content and commentary on salaries, bonuses, law
schools, and firms.
Blogs and other social media became an important part of the information network for legal
professionals, providing notification of early events. SCOTUSblog is one of the better known, as
it covers the U.S. Supreme Court. These blogs pushed the commercial players, forcing them to
speed up their coverage and strengthen their comprehensiveness.
In 2004, Law360 began using technology and quick, efficient processes to provide timely
coverage of countless practice areas. They extract updates from PACER, the U.S. federal court
filing system, tagging companies and people. This practice-specific news offering enables legal
professionals to keep track of customers and competitors.
Beginning in the 1990s, business of law publishers expanded their product offerings to
events and books. They brought their communities together through the strength of their brands
for education, recognition, and networking. The publishers’ local connections led to books focused
on state-specific legal issues written by local authors. These new monetization streams fit into the
publishers’ vision of helping their legal communities thrive while helping to offset declining
classified and print advertising.
The economic downturn in 2008 forced leaders of law firms and in-house counsel to focus
more broadly on the management of their organizations. These days, in addition to finding business
development opportunities and issues, law firms gather information on their competitors in order
to improve their operations; meanwhile, in-house counsel seek best practices to reduce outside
counsel spending.
Additionally, clients keep pushing private practice attorneys into narrower niches and
specialties. Instead of being an intellectual property generalist, an attorney may now be defined as
a specialist in patent litigation for large global corporations with operations in the U.S. and Asia.
This trend toward specialization has happened to other professional services industries and is not
expected to reverse.
The consequence of these shifts is that legal professionals have become more reliant on
current awareness offerings covering the practice areas and the markets they serve. They seek news
tailored to their specific interests.
These developments are leading to the integration of business of law content with
substantive (or practice of law) content. This trend accelerated in 2011 when the large legal
information providers – Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, and Bloomberg – moved to expand the
news offerings available with their legal research systems, resulting in increased partnership and
acquisition activity. LexisNexis signed an exclusive license agreement with ALM to provide its
content through the Lexis legal research system. This was followed by Bloomberg’s acquisition of
BNA, a daily practice of law and current awareness provider focused on particular specialty areas.
In March of 2012, LexisNexis acquired Law360. Thomson Reuters responded by forming a
partnership with Wolters Kluwer, providing daily current awareness content to users of Thomson’s
legal research system, Westlaw. ALM acquired RivalEdge, a media company that allows lawyers
11
presence in eight of the top 10 U.S. legal markets, in addition to international publications. Dolan
Media acquired Lawyers Weekly, a publisher of weekly newspapers in Massachusetts and various
secondary markets, and combined it with other regional publications. The two companies became
the largest legal news and current awareness companies. The emergence of the Internet spawned
a new era of innovation in business of law coverage. The Greedy Associates message boards
enabled newly hired associates to share compensation information at the largest law firms. Above
the Law was founded in 2006, providing content and commentary on salaries, bonuses, law
schools, and firms.
Blogs and other social media became an important part of the information network for legal
professionals, providing notification of early events. SCOTUSblog is one of the better known, as
it covers the U.S. Supreme Court. These blogs pushed the commercial players, forcing them to
speed up their coverage and strengthen their comprehensiveness.
In 2004, Law360 began using technology and quick, efficient processes to provide timely
coverage of countless practice areas. They extract updates from PACER, the U.S. federal court
filing system, tagging companies and people. This practice-specific news offering enables legal
professionals to keep track of customers and competitors.
Beginning in the 1990s, business of law publishers expanded their product offerings to
events and books. They brought their communities together through the strength of their brands
for education, recognition, and networking. The publishers’ local connections led to books focused
on state-specific legal issues written by local authors. These new monetization streams fit into the
publishers’ vision of helping their legal communities thrive while helping to offset declining
classified and print advertising.
The economic downturn in 2008 forced leaders of law firms and in-house counsel to focus
more broadly on the management of their organizations. These days, in addition to finding business
development opportunities and issues, law firms gather information on their competitors in order
to improve their operations; meanwhile, in-house counsel seek best practices to reduce outside
counsel spending.
Additionally, clients keep pushing private practice attorneys into narrower niches and
specialties. Instead of being an intellectual property generalist, an attorney may now be defined as
a specialist in patent litigation for large global corporations with operations in the U.S. and Asia.
This trend toward specialization has happened to other professional services industries and is not
expected to reverse.
The consequence of these shifts is that legal professionals have become more reliant on
current awareness offerings covering the practice areas and the markets they serve. They seek news
tailored to their specific interests.
These developments are leading to the integration of business of law content with
substantive (or practice of law) content. This trend accelerated in 2011 when the large legal
information providers – Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, and Bloomberg – moved to expand the
news offerings available with their legal research systems, resulting in increased partnership and
acquisition activity. LexisNexis signed an exclusive license agreement with ALM to provide its
content through the Lexis legal research system. This was followed by Bloomberg’s acquisition of
BNA, a daily practice of law and current awareness provider focused on particular specialty areas.
In March of 2012, LexisNexis acquired Law360. Thomson Reuters responded by forming a
partnership with Wolters Kluwer, providing daily current awareness content to users of Thomson’s
legal research system, Westlaw. ALM acquired RivalEdge, a media company that allows lawyers
11
