2009-10-20 16:48:06 -

The Cowen Group has just released the Q3 Staffing Survey of AmLaw 200 and Fortune 500 corporations. For the second quarter in a row, both groups reported that their legal teams are working more hours and both groups anticipate adding additional staff in Q4.

Significantly, the research revealed that there were different reasons for the increase in working hours; 44% of

corporate respondents indicated that longer hours were due to fewer staff, compared to only 25% of law firm respondents. Outsourcing was another striking difference between law firms and corporate respondents; 44% of corporations will outsource services compared to 33% of law firms. Fifty percent of all respondents indicated that they would add temporary or permanent staff, or both, if workloads continue to increase, with litigation support staff being the number one area of demand.

The Survey revealed that among corporate respondents, 50% indicated that their greatest need for outsourced services was for the hosting of data.

Sixty percent of corporate respondents indicated they planned to increase their involvement and oversight of the data review process.

“There is broad consensus that the greatest challenge to both law firms and corporations is to cut costs and maintain efficiency” said David Cowen, President of The Cowen Group. “Cuts in staffing appear to have reached the bottom, with a few exceptions, and the outlook for staff additions, whether temporary or permanent, is gaining genuine momentum”.

The full report can be viewed at www.cowengroup.com./downloads/q3a.pdf :



About The Cowen Group

The Cowen Group is the nation's leading search firm focused exclusively on staffing and recruiting for Litigation Support, Practice Support and Electronic Data Discovery, globally. As industry experts, The Cowen Group conducts comprehensive quarterly reviews of staffing trends, provides industry benchmarks and analysis of evolving issues and offers the investor, vendor, law firm and corporate counsel communities strategic intelligence, consulting services, strategic market analysis and thought leadership events.



The Cowen GroupJeanette Slepian, 503-927-1860 Jeanette@CowenGroup.com : mailto:Jeanette@CowenGroup.com