For years, Big Law has cut librarian and research staff as it moved to smaller offices and reduced library space. Now, for the first time in years, law firms are pouring more resources and money into such roles, but that may not apply to the books.
A recent Thomson Reuters report found that library and research positions have seen the “biggest upheaval” in law firm staffing over the past year, with lower salaries compared to other law firm staff positions. The number of animals increased the most. .
The role of libraries and research is on the decline, staff-to-lawyer ratios are falling, and costs per lawyer are slowly increasing, the report said. But last year saw a reversal, with fees per attorney increasing by 12.9% and FTEs per attorney increasing by 5.3%, driving growth. None of the other 10 categories in the data saw up to a 10% increase in per-lawyer costs, and only the “Recruiting and Talent” category showed a comparable increase in FTE per lawyer. .
As detailed in Thomson Reuters data, this category primarily consists of legal research, library and research management, knowledge management, and librarian roles.
“What is happening now is that the increasing role of knowledge management and library and research management is preparing for the increased use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools,” the report states. “As firms organize their data, they begin collecting and cleaning up the training data that will soon be used in AI workflows. It is already clear that there are requirements for more sophisticated skills.
While companies both top and bottom of the Am Law 200 have repeatedly emphasized their exploration of AI in recent years, some analysts believe the legal industry is at a disadvantage when it comes to hiring talent in this field. It suggests that it is.
Indeed, analyst Marcus Belanger, author of the Thomson Reuters staffing report, said in an interview this week that while he has not yet seen specific data on that particular claim, he believes that there is a “culture of second-class citizens.” He said there is a lot of anecdotal evidence. In other words, in law firms, there is a general sense that “our work is secondary to the lawyer’s work, and we are treated as such.”
“I don’t think that works as a long-term strategy,” Belanger added. “But compensation cures a lot of ills.” He added that the rise in AI-related roles at law firms is likely due to layoffs by large firms in other industries that employ such professionals. He pointed out that this is happening at the same time.
“It may not be a coincidence that this growth is occurring at the same time as we are seeing contraction in technology and finance,” he said.
Belanger said he would be “shocked” if library and research jobs saw the same level of growth this year, but said 2023 was “in some ways an important year” and compensation would be minimal to moderate. He added that there is a high possibility that there will be an increase in Those roles move forward.
Other categories of law firm staffing covered and aggregated in the report include recruiting and human resources. Practice group operations. Management; Marketing and Business Development. finance etc. Each of these categories had higher average annual growth rates in costs per attorney and FTEs per attorney over the six-year period ending in 2023 than libraries, research, and IT.
However, only recruiting and human resources showed a similar increase in FTEs per lawyer (5.3%) compared to libraries and research in 2023.
One caveat, however, is that library and research roles still only make up about 2.5% of a law firm’s total support staff. This is the second lowest rate among staff positions analyzed by Thomson Reuters. Although there has been a decline over time, on a proportional basis secretarial and word processing roles are still at the top (28%), followed by operations (16%), IT and technology (14%) and finance (12%). others.
According to the report, IT departments will be the third fastest growing support staff role based on FTE per lawyer (2.3%) and sixth fastest growing in cost per lawyer (6.7%) in 2023. is growing rapidly. And given that the base within a company is larger on average, its growth rate is expected to be less influenced by outlier companies and a good baseline from the previous year. This may be more indicative of the company’s priorities,” the report states.
“What we saw among IT and technical staff in 2023 reiterates that companies are investing in higher-skilled, higher-paid professionals.”
Belanger noted that for “network and security” professionals within IT companies, FTEs per lawyer increased by only 1.1%, but costs per lawyer increased by 6.1%. “The difference between those two points is essentially an increase in their compensation. This is a significant increase in the amount they are paid per person,” he said.
The report concluded that the “rapid” upward trend in compensation is expected to continue as companies adopt cloud-based infrastructure and deploy GenAI more frequently.
“For example, security is becoming one of the top operational priorities for many law firms, and as a result, it is very likely that these roles will become increasingly well-paid,” the report said. There is.
