From my consulting practice, I am sensitive to how many requests major law departments get for benchmark data. My eyebrows went up, therefore, when I read that National Economic Research Associates (NERA) obtained spending data from 302 companies, all with annual ales of $500 million or more, by telephone calls! A telephone call from a script reader, and the likes of JP Morgan and Philip Morris divulged outside counsel spending figures! Amazing.
Without data, law departments flail around trying to manage better. Some chief legal officers can sail close to the winds of management without figures, but the better tack is to know how to express your department’s value, productivity, and comparative standing with credible numbers.
Still, a telephone survey that obtained such a participation rate astounds me. (The report is at www.nera/mediacoverage)