The State Of Biglaw And The Evolving Role Of The Law Librarian

Three pieces of advice for Biglaw librarians seeking to keep abreast of changing times.

I just returned from Baltimore, where I had the pleasure of attending the 2018 annual meeting and conference of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). I attend, cover, or speak at many legal conferences, and AALL is one of my favorites. It boasts a nice collegial vibe, and the attendees are extremely attentive and engaged during panels. Polite law librarians — no surprise there![1]

On Sunday night, I interviewed Dean Sonderegger, Vice President and General Manager at Wolters Kluwer (and Above the Law columnist), about the changing role of the law librarian in Biglaw — and what librarians can do to evolve along with their duties. He outlined several ways that librarians can add value to their organizations during a period of flux for the legal industry.

These themes of innovation and change emerged again in a panel the following morning, entitled “The State of the Legal Industry and the Evolving Role of the Law Librarian.” It was moderated by Rob Alston, Senior Director of Legal Intelligence Sales at ALM Intelligence, who was joined by Lee Bernstein, Library Manager at Haynes and Boone; Joseph Keslar, Director of Library Services at Blank Rome; and Steve Kovalan, Senior Analyst at ALM Intelligence.

Kovalan opened the discussion by sharing findings from ALM Intelligence’s annual survey of law librarians. He showed a chart reflecting what many observers of Biglaw already know: since the Great Recession, demand for Biglaw services has increased at a sluggish pace, well below the growth of GDP over this period. More specifically, a survey of in-house counsel found that 30 percent of them plan to decrease their use of outside counsel (compared to 15 percent who plan to increase their use, and 55 percent who plan to stay around the same level).[2]

What’s driving this? The high cost of outside counsel — 62 percent of surveyed law departments said they’re reducing their use of outside counsel to realize cost savings — which has led to in-house counsel “taking back” work from their outside lawyers. Almost two-thirds of law departments said that work previously done by outside counsel is being transferred to in-house attorneys.

Kovalan outlined six trends that he has been seeing in Biglaw and expects to continue:

1. The emergence of areas of intense competition between firms.
2. More consolidation of law firms (aka “merger mania”).
3. Continuing increase in the sophistication — and demands — of corporate law departments.
4. Growing importance of investment in technology.
5. Growing importance of firm management (i.e., firm success will be determined in significant part by firms’ ability to execute on their strategic plans).
6. Greater collaboration across different types of vendors.

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What does this changing environment mean for law librarians? Here are three quick takeaways.

First, law librarians need to ensure that they’re getting adequate recognition for their contributions to firm success. According to Kovalan, historically this has been an issue for library departments.

One possible solution discussed by the panel: should the library and librarians change what they’re called, to something incorporating terms like “knowledge management” or “research specialist”? I found this finding noteworthy:

(This led to another interesting conversation among the panelists over whether the shift away from the word “library” could be driven by sexism. Joseph Keslar suggested that the practice could reflect a failure to adequately value the contributions of librarians, who today are predominantly women.)

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Second, law librarians and library departments need to be flexible, unafraid of making changes when necessary. This could include changing reporting structures, perhaps to reflect how the library department interacts with other departments like information technology; purchasing new legal technology offerings (and nudging change-resistant attorneys to adopt them when helpful); or adjusting approaches to billing. (Going back to the issue of nomenclature and labels, some clients resist paying for “librarians,” but have no objection to paying for “information specialists.”)

Third, law librarians need to make sure they have the resources needed to do their jobs. This includes both adequate staffing and a budget sufficient to cover subscriptions to all necessary services — which are proliferating, thanks to the explosive growth in the world of legal technology.

Of course, like much advice about Biglaw, all this is easier said than done. And much of it comes down to office politics — which could easily be the subject of many more discussions…..

[1] Law librarians are a polite lot, but make no mistake: they also know how to party, as I discovered when I stopped by an after-hours shindig hosted by Fastcase. (I left the festivities right around the time that hotel security showed up.)

[2] Random aside: I overheard an audience member complain to another attendee about what he viewed as the survey’s low response rate — under 15 percent from law librarians, who tend to be a responsive bunch. This librarian said that he and some of his colleagues don’t take the survey because in the past, partners would use the survey findings “against” the library — e.g., to justify budget or staff cuts.

Wolters Kluwer Thought Leader Joins Above the Law and Evolve the Law at AALL [PR Newswire]
AALL ANNUAL MEETING & CONFERENCE [American Association of Law Libraries]

Earlier: The Tech-Savvy Law Librarian


DBL square headshotDavid Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.