Lawyer to Lawyer Referral Market Global Findings Jacqui Hurd CIS Local Forum June 23, 2010

Martindale-Hubbell Bringing legal buyers and sellers together Martindale.com, global online legal directory Martindale-Hubbell was founded in 1868 in the United States Grown to include over 1,000,000 lawyers in over 160 countries Over 2 million views of lawyers and law firms are performed each month New M-H Connected, professional online networking site, has over 31,000 legal professionals

Survey Respondents Martindale-Hubbell commissioned the study to better understand the global Lawyer to Lawyer referral market A total of 734 legal professionals responded to the survey –Asia: 105 –Eastern Europe: 113 –Latam: 139 –Western Europe: 112 –U.S. Mid Law: 115 –U.S. Large Law: 150 Mid-law is defined at 21 to 50 fee earners and Large is 50+

Survey Respondents 18% of respondents were Managing Partners (25% were MPs outside of U.S.) 52% were Partners 25% were Lawyers or Associates 2% in Marketing or Business Development roles 3% considered themselves in “Other” roles

Proportion of revenue from referrals Latam and Western Europe derive the highest proportion of annual revenue from referrals. Interestingly, the U.S. has the highest proportion of not tracking referrals. % of annual revenue from referrals Removed non-responders – about 10%

Where do they receive work from? 94% of U.S. respondents* indicated that their referral work comes from other U.S.-based law firms. For Europe-based firms, Western Europe is the most important source of referrals, whereas Asia and Latam rely heavily on the U.S. * Removed ‘Don’t Know’ responses

Likelihood of receiving something in return Western Europe places more importance on receiving something in return for a referral (top 2 box 36%) than any other region when selecting a referral partner. However, in the qualitative research, when asked about reciprocation we received mixed messages. On the whole, the importance of the existence of reciprocal relationships was played down.

Is referral revenue expected to change? Most firms expect referral revenue to increase (47% top 2 box) or stay the same (49%) Fortunately, no firms expected a definite decrease in referrals Key reasons for expecting changes are related to expectations of the economy’s improvement, changes in the firm’s marketing efforts, personal efforts to build a referral network

Steps to either protect or increase the volume of referral work received - Networking All Respondents Eastern Europe

Existence of mutual or exclusive relationships When selecting a referral partner, U.S. firms place the least importance on existing mutual or exclusive relationships than the other global regions whereas Eastern Europe puts more importance on them.

Steps to protect or increase the volume of referral work received – Marketing initiatives All RespondentsEastern Europe

Find out more Final report of the Martindale-Hubbell research on global lawyer to lawyer referral networks will be posted in the LexMundi group on MH Connected on June 30 th. Webinar on the research will be hosted in the LexMundi group on June 29 th. The recorded webinar will be available in the group as well. Jacqui Hurd: Join MH Connected and the LexMundi group for free at