By ERIC SNYDER
Nashville Business Journal

Three recent surveys highlight cost-cutting measures by the nation's largest law firms.

The number of attorneys working in the nation's 250 largest law firms has dropped by 4 percent, according to a survey released last week by The National Law Journal.

It's the largest decline in the history of the annual headcount, which the NLJ has produced since 1978.

The 250 biggest firms employed 126,669 attorneys, down more than 5,000 from last year.

It marked only the third time the total headcount has decreased.

The count most recently decreased in 1993, when it fell by 0.9 percent; it also fell by 1 percent in 1992. Over the past 20 years, average growth has been 4 percent, the NLJ reports.

According to the survey, the recent declines have negated a third of the growth enjoyed by law firms in the past five years, with several falling below their 2005 levels.

The cutoff to make this year's list of the 250 largest law firms was 164 lawyers.

Experience pays

Those firms that are adding staff are looking for associates that can help improve their bottom line, according to a survey by Robert Half Legal.

Nearly half of attorneys - 49 percent - say the most important criteria when evaluating prospective midlevel hires is practice-area expertise. Thirty percent said business-development skills are most important, while 10 percent siad years of experience.

The survey includes responses from 150 attorneys with at least three years of experience in the legal field, all from the largest law firms in the U.S. and Canada.

"Experienced attorneys with a roster of clients and proven business development expertise are sought by firms looking to expand service offerings in active practice areas such as bankruptcy, litigation, and labor and employment law," said Charles Volkert, executive director of Robert Half Legal.

Tech spending down

Technology spending is also down at the country's top law firms as attorneys continue to prune costs. That's according to a new survey from The American Lawyer.

One-third of the 110 Am Law 200 firms participating in survey said that their capital budgets were down more than 10 percent this year.

According to American Lawyer's report, staffing levels and salaries have taken hits, and firms have deferred equipment purchases and software upgrades to save money.

As a consequence, firms have been forced to use new and more nimble technologies, such as videoconferencing, that are directly related to saving cash.

Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal and Tierney Plumb of the Washington Business Journal contributed to this report.