Based on 165 responses to its survey this fall, Altman Weil, in partnership with Lexis Nexis Martindale-Hubble, found that personal references were the leading method by which Chief Legal Officers find a law firm to meet a need.
If personal references don’t turn up a firm, “CLOs turn first to law firm websites, closely followed by legal directories.” It’s not surprising that Martindale-Hubble found that directories were effective.
But I have some questions. How many times a year did the CLO’s hire a new firm, per billion dollars of revenue? Of those new hires, how many did they locate through online websites of firms or legal directories? Inquiring minds also want to know where articles and presentations at conferences stood in the list of resources. Senior in-house lawyers pay attention to which lawyers publish useful articles and are selected to speak on topics that matter in-house.