Around the Legal Industry: 6/17 – 6/21

Survey Shows Rise In Pay For Paralegals and Litigation Assistants

A recently released survey by the International Paralegal Management Association (IPMA) and ALM Legal Intelligence shows that hourly pay rose for paralegals and litigation assistants this year — both in law firms and corporate law departments. (Also noted in the findings: The rates at which firms billed these services actually declined during this same period.) The annual survey — which has been conducted since 2002 — tracks compensation, billing rates and billable hours.

Source:  Legal Industry News | Paralegals’ Pay Rises Despite Lower Billing Rates

NLJ 350 Report Shows Regional Details of Growth Markets for Law

In the National Law Journal’s recently released report of the top 350 law firms, we saw that growth was modest (just over one percent) in 2012. This week, the NLJ provided further analysis of those survey numbers — including a detailed breakdown of law firm performance in top markets, both U.S. and internationally.

Source: The National Law Journal | NLJ 350 Regional Report: The Hot Markets, and the Cold

A Bumper Crop of Juror Misconduct Allegations

In both federal and state courts, numerous allegations of juror misconduct have been giving the judicial system something to talk about. Among the recent incidents: 1) Using internet research to access an appellate brief (with otherwise undisclosed information) on the case under deliberation. 2) The jury foreman who changed his vote to “guilty” on receiving a telephone call about a family medical crisis — and wanting to end the trial quickly; and 3) A murder defendant’s “enterprising” mother — who set up a “sex palace” to entice and engage a juror in pillow talk about how the jury had (mis)behaved during the trial that convicted her son? There are plenty of other recent jury misconduct cases where these came from…

Source: The National Law Journal | Sometimes Jurors Do the Darndest Things

Tips For Legal Marketing

Not surprisingly, most legal professionals are more skilled (and consequently, more comfortable) with legal matters than with marketing matters. Having a dedicated Marketing Department to manage these promotional affairs can help to minimize the time spent on marketing. Ultimately, however, most legal pros can benefit from becoming more familiar with legal services marketing practices. In this fast-evolving discipline, an efficient way to stay abreast of legal marketing trends is to attend seminars and conferences — such as the recent Super Marketing Conference at Suffolk University Law School. A blogpost on conference highlights is available here.

Source: Small Firm Innovation | 8 Take Aways from the Super Legal Marketing Conference