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Legal Professionals’ Information Use Habits, Preferences, and Satisfaction

Image of David Curle

Author: David Curle, Director & Lead Analyst

This report identifies key characteristics of lawyers as information users, and helps information vendors understand lawyers’ habits, motivations, and purchasing patterns. It compares law-firm lawyers with in-house corporate lawyers and contrasts their (sometimes very different) information behaviors and preferences with those of a wider population of knowledge workers and professionals. Legal professionals voraciously consume content, spend a lot of time with it, and are willing to spend money on the information. For information providers, the data in this report identifies a number of opportunities to grow their businesses by better meeting some fundamental customer needs and characteristics. The report contains:

- An overview profile of information use by lawyers, including top information types used and lawyers’ satisfaction levels with major vendors and products;
- Data and analysis of lawyers’ information habits and unmet needs;
- A detailed look at this group’s use of interactive media;
- Data and analysis of lawyers’ information spending and purchasing – the money flow;
- Essential actions for publishers and information providers serving the legal market.


Pub Date: September 1, 2009
Type: Market Report
Segment: LTR
Keywords: Users
Pages: 28
Format: PDF Application_pdf

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Table of Contents

  • Why This Market?
    1. Methodology
  • Overview Profile of Legal Users
    1. Top Information Types Used
    2. Views about Specific Products and Vendors
  • Information Use and Behaviors
    1. Where Lawyers Go To Seek Information
    2. Search Habits
    3. Time Spent Gathering and Analyzing Information
    4. Problems Getting Information
    5. Unmet Information Needs
  • Interactive Media
  • Spending and Purchasing Patterns
  • Essential Actions
  • Related Research

    • Tables & Figures

  • Table 1. Lawyers: How They Apply Information
  • Table 2. Top Information Types Used
  • Table 3. Views about Selected Vendors – Corporate Lawyers
  • Table 4. Views about Selected Vendors – Firm Lawyers
  • Figure 1. Where Lawyers Go to Seek Information
  • Figure 2. Search Failure Rate
  • Figure 3. Time Spent Gathering and Analyzing Information
  • Figure 4. Problems or Obstacles in Obtaining Information
  • Table 5. Unmet Information Needs
  • Figure 5. Lawyers’ Handheld Device Usage
  • Figure 6. Social Networking Site Usage
  • Figure 7. Use of Social Networking Sites
  • Figure 8. Attitudes Toward Fee vs. Free Sources
  • Figure 9. Where Purchase Decisions are Made
  • Figure 10. Purchase Information as Independent Decision
  • Figure 11. Preferred Pricing Model
  • Figure 12. Median Annual Spending
  • Figure 13. Spending for Personal, Departmental, and Organizational Use
  • Figure 14. Spending by Format

Companies Mentioned

  1. American Law Institute
  2. Aspen Publishers, Inc.
  3. BNA
  4. Legal Directories Publishing Company, Inc.
  5. LexisNexis
  6. Practising Law Institute (PLI)
  7. Thomson Reuters
  8. Wolters Kluwer Health