I saw this done in a presentation. It’s wrong. Even if the inside lawyers supervising or working on a matter are as experienced as or more experienced than the law firm’s partners, the comparison ignores the firm’s leverage. Data I developed for a law department shows that roughly 40 percent…
With many metrics, you can test mathematically whether the difference from one year to the next or from one group of law departments to another is merely measurement error or meaningless random fluctuation within the bounds of normal, or whether the change is evidence of a definitive difference. Tests for…
I have neither seen metrics on this ratio nor encountered them in my consulting practice. Even so, not one to be deterred by the lack of precedent, I advocate as a measure of effectiveness to track at how many claims – however they are defined – fester into litigation. One…
This metric is not only not a main pole in the benchmarking tent, it shouldn’t even be a stake or a guy wire. I do not think this metric has value – save in the case of comparing HR/employment lawyers (See my post of July 20, 2005 on practice area…
An article in the Star-Telegram.com, May 14, 2006 (Barry Schlacter) quoted Brian Reuter of Guideline, Inc., a firm that supplies technology expert witnesses. All praise mystical metrics! “In patent litigation, the average cost per side is $2 million. There [were] 2,814 patent litigation filings in 2003, which means about $11…
Global Counsel, Sept. 2003 at 18 reports results from PLC’s Global Counsel 3000 Law Firm Partnering Survey of an unspecified number of European and US law departments,. The median respondent department, however, reported 10 lawyers. How can it be, then, that “the median number of firms used in the home…
At FMC Technologies, according to its general counsel, Jeffrey Carr, several management initiatives slashed the length of time its law suits typically last. According to CFO Mag., Oct. 1, 2005 (Russ Banham), FMC Technologies drastically cut the number of firms it paid most of its fees and set up for…
One of the most common denominators in law department benchmarks is number of lawyers. Lawsuits divided by number of lawyers, patents divided by IP lawyers, paralegals per lawyer, and inside spend per lawyer are examples. That method of normalizing data across many law departments, unfortunately, disadvantages law departments on inside…
Previous posts have addressed different aspects of the fully-loaded cost per hour of corporate counsel (See my post of Nov. 16, 2005 and links; Aug. 15, 2005 on facilities costs; and Dec. 16, 2005 on consequences of understating this metric.) What hasn’t been discussed is the invidious effect on it…
Far-sighted managers of law departments look at trends to gauge future spending, types of work anticipated, technology investments, and staffing needs. For example, as reported in Counsel to Counsel, May 2006 at 15, federal lawsuits filed under Nature of Suit 365, the designation for personal injury-products liability, show a dramatic…