Release 3.0 of the General Counsel Metrics benchmark survey of staffing and spending went out two weeks ago. It covered 1,079 law departments in 28 industries. You can get Release 3.0 if you take part before December 8th. Here is the UR: https://novisurvey.net/n/GCMetrics2013.aspx There is no cost to complete the…
There is no reliable way to measure a patent’s value. But, according to an article in the Economist, January 5, 2013 at 52, “one can use a rough-and-ready yardstick: in how many places did the inventors seek a patent for the same technology?” Somewhere the data is available to…
The U.S. legal system is the world’s most costly, according to a study released this week [PDF] by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR). The study, conducted by NERA Economic Consulting, shows that the American system costs about one and half times more than the Eurozone average. I…
Regarding law departments, we often use the term “benchmark metrics” loosely. Start with “metrics.” They are something you can count that exists independently of the counting. The square feet of a law department’s office space is a metric; the amount paid in overtime to secretaries is a metric; the number…
On June 10th General Counsel Metrics, LLC, sent Release 1.0 of its benchmarking staffing and spending survey to the 196 law departments that had submitted data through May 31st. The release covered companies in 26 industries and provides 25 benchmark metrics for revenue categories and numbers of lawyers as well…
Software is now available that could take all the blog posts on GC Metrics’ Law Department Management and all the articles written in the past five years and all the books about leading law departments and analyze their contents. A combination of algorithms that use machine learning, network analysis, data…
The hardest data to extract from a law department is data that requires someone senior to do anything. Try getting the general counsel to evaluate 25 law firms. The next hardest data to obtain is that which someone collects for one purpose, but the data analyst recognizes as a source…
My article published in the National Law Journal on April 8, 2013 discusses three innovative forms of graphics. Mosaic plots, box plots, and heat maps can represent all kinds of data that law department managers care about. It offers some examples of each kind of graphic after explaining what they…
This leader to an article caught my eye: “In markets with little regulation, litigation soars. As regulation rises, litigation falls. Unless consumers are bound by so-called tort reform, their only recourse when harmed by an unregulated product is to sue its maker.” The quotation comes from Life Science Leader, December…
One of the predictions in the Economist, the World in 2013 at 25, is that conglomerates will become more common. As banks and venture capitalists become more risk averse, the article argues, companies will invest their own cash in a wider array of enterprises or endeavors. Another reason is that…