Competitive Intelligence – Tools of the Trade

Article written by Melania Wenstrup

Con questo articolo Melania Wenstrup aggiunge un altro utile tassello all’attività di business development per studi legali. L'argomento trattato riguarda, la ricerca e la gestione delle informazioni, una delle maggiori risorse a disposizione degli studi legali. A. Di Tommaso

While an increasing number of law firms are conducting client surveys, a surprisingly small number undertake efforts to learn about prospect clients, industries, or current or potential markets.

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the process that enables law firms to:

• determine whether markets exist for new services or new locations,
• identify and target prospective clients,
• gauge client satisfaction,
• identify new industry service opportunities,
• develop and qualify leads, and
• determine how it compares to its competitors.

Competitive intelligence is relatively a new endeavor for law firms and is becoming an important tool for law firms to differentiate themselves.

Many law firms are now global, serving companies across the world and across disciplines. Competition is intense and firms need good real time information on client and sector developments. Proprietary analytical reports help smart firms make better service decisions for their clients and win new business. Clients are demanding more sophisticated services from the law firms that represent their interests. They are looking for legal solutions to business situations that are based on their sector and company.

As a business development coordinator, I provide our attorneys with this type of research. I use a variety of tools and techniques to gather the vital intelligence my lawyers need. I analyze industries, companies, and key legal and business trends from newspapers, trade periodicals, public filings, and various sources in legal marketing. Using LexisNexis and Thomson Corporation’s Westlaw research services allows me to quickly search the archives of thousand of news agencies. I review publicly available records – Dun & Bradstreet data, Factivia, and Google searches, I also set up Google news alerts to track news of key clients and issues. Thomas West Monitor Suite provides me with unique market assessments on business intake and outtake. This collection of data helps my team to focus its marketing and business development efforts and identify opportunities to develop and promote. I review litigation profile reports to analyze and spot trends in litigation by practice area, company, law firm, jurisdiction, attorney representation, and identify which law firms have represented who and the judges involved. Deals Monitor helps me to identify the relationship between the attorneys and the underwriters, issuers, buyers, and acquisition targets. Services like PinHawk offer handy digests of news and blog commentaries, which allows me to create profiles and receive customized information. I also review the ALM Research Online to understand competitors billing rates, levels of lawyer compensation, and track major transactions. I use Hoover’s Online to review profiles on companies, industries and executives enabling me to identify possible new service opportunities for our clients. I then distill this information and link my reports and recommendations to specific companies, executives and attorneys through our CRM system.

Competitive intelligence helps firms prospect for new clients, target opportunities in new industries, headhunt laterals hires, spot trends in litigation, and profile competing firms. It is an opportunity not to be missed.

Article written by Melania Wenstrup, Wenstrup@BlankRome.com. Ms. Wenstrup graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business Management and Business Law. She has also attended the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, where she focused her studies on relationship marketing.