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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? - As Law.com's Brenda Sapino Jeffreys reports, at least a third of law firm marketers in a flash survey said their firms lost out on a client opportunity because the firm didn't respond quickly enough to a request for experience information. While the survey, conducted by Dallas marketing strategy and technology company Content Pilot, found that law firm marketing or business development departments are almost always responsible for compiling the information for clients or potential clients, lawyers apparently take little responsibility for helping. "The lawyers do not make it a priority," said Deborah McMurray, founder of Content Pilot, who presented the survey results on Thursday at the Legal Marketing Association's Southwest Regional Conference. She told Jeffreys that marketing teams are "100% responsible" for compiling information about a firm's experience in a particular practice area, often scrambling to come up with information that may be "stuck in some lawyer's head," rather than in an up-to-date database. "It's a back-burner issue in the law firm among the lawyers until it is an urgent request—and then it's a hot, hot, lightning-hot issue," she said.

COMPENSATION DECELERATION - While many Big Law partners at one point thought the pandemic would curb compensation, it was actually a precursor to the most significant pay increases in more than half a decade, according to Major, Lindsey & Africa's biannual Partner Compensation Survey. But, as Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, the pandemic's lingering effects, like supply-chain disruptions and inflation, along with a costly war in Europe, will ultimately result in more modest compensation growth this year. Karen Andersen, a partner in MLA's partner practice, told Maloney that firms might reduce travel and real estate expenses and move associates around to continue to capture profits this year. She said firms have performed admirably in 2022, but it's likely fewer of them will end this year with "spectacular" profits. "I think firms, in general, have had good years this year, and I'm sure there have been some that, like last year, had spectacular years. I suspect we'll see some of that this year, but definitely, at the end of the day, more modest growth than we saw last year or even the year before," she said.

ON THE RADAR  - Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust, Lincoln Property and other managers of multifamily rental real estate were hit with an antitrust class action Tuesday in California Southern District Court. The suit accuses the defendants of replacing independent pricing with third-party recommendations made by RealPage Inc. to artificially inflate the cost of long-term multi-family rental units. The suit was filed by a team of five law firms including Berger Montague; Hausfeld; and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:22-cv-01611, Bason et al v. RealPage, Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

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