For a given internal budget, law departments vary significantly in their calculated cost per lawyer hour depending on the number of lawyers they have. If 1,800 chargeable hours per attorney is assumed, then an internal budget of $4,500,000 means $312 per hour if there are only 8 lawyers, $250 per…
The 93 companies processed to date have 2,096 lawyers, 569 paralegals, and 1,292 other legal support staff. Aggregated, their internal spend has reached almost $900 million and the external counsel spend close to $1 billion. With the median company at nine lawyers and $2.3 billion in revenue (right you are,…
Most legal departments are able to generate basic data on their staff and spend with reasonable accuracy. The solid standbys include number of lawyers, although there some thought needs to be given to full-time equivalents and contract lawyers (See my post of Dec. 15, 2009: full-time-equivalent lawyers and others with…
Most legal departments are able to generate basic data on their staff and spend with reasonable accuracy. The solid standbys include number of lawyers, although there some thought needs to be given to full-time equivalents and contract lawyers (See my post of Dec. 15, 2009: full-time-equivalent lawyers and others with…
High tens of thousands, that’s all I can really estimate. Let me explain this fragment based on a study by Ernst & Young on headquarters locations of the Global 500. In the ten countries with the most, the US leads with 140, followed by Japan (68), Germany (39) and on…
Most industries have markers of success, such as movies released by studios, Nielsen ratings for broadcast companies, square feet of warehouses for distribution companies, or ton-miles for truckers. The benchmarks by which general counsel in those industries might compare themselves ought to incorporate such industry-specific benchmarks. Far from knowing what…
General Counsel Metrics, my new company, invites general counsel around the globe to participate in what will be the most in-depth analysis ever done of fundamental law department benchmarks. Hundreds of companies around the world will submit their data online, with no charge if they do so during February, and…
Lawyers per billion of revenue. Sounds so simple. Underneath, however, definitional and operational complexity lurks. My article last year on this ubiquitous benchmark, lawyers per billion of revenue, covers many of the nuances [] but afterwards I had some further thoughts. One is that a better measure would be lawyer-equivalent…
The National Law Journal just published my deliberations on the eight categories of metrics that confront general counsel. I wrote about them in the order of how commonly those metrics come to the fore and then continued with seven deeper thoughts on overall characteristics of legal department metrics. For some…
Everyone has heard Benjamin Disraeli’s acidic quip, “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” He was 30 percent wrong. A few might even have smiled at Mark Twain’s “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.” Ponzi schemes, perhaps? Many have heard variations on Lord Kelvin’s dictum that “You can’t manage what…