Number of legal departments in the US. According to Intellectual Prop., Fall 2010 at 48, “There are 30,000 companies in the United States that have at least 100 employees.” If so, it is very hard to imagine as many as 20,000 legal departments since many of them are likely to be at the small end of the spectrum (See my post of April 30, 2010: estimate of 20,000 US law departments.).
Another measure of currency exchange rates. Corporate Counsel uses the Federal Reserve average exchange rate for a year to convert foreign currencies. That might be a good standard for benchmarks. Also, if law firms bill in their local currency and you pay in that currency, the exchange rate complications mount when you convert your spend into your company’s base currency (See my post of June 5, 2009: currency conversion with 6 references.).
Open positions in law departments. This blog has been almost completely mute about open positions in legal departments (See my post of Dec. 2, 2007: posted open positions at TimeWarnerCable.). Fewer of them exist now, I suppose, after the headcount cutting of recent years.
Panels protect from supplicants. Panels help keep in-house lawyers from being petitioned for assignments all the time by outside firms. Someone made this claim recently and I suppose there is truth to it. “I would love to use your firm, Chris, but we have a set list on our panel” (See my post of June 18, 2007: law-firm panels with 13 references; and April 18, 2009: law firm panels with 6 references.).
Law is a noun and legal is an adjective. So, the right name ought to be Law Department? (See my post of May 24, 2005: one view of the difference between “law department” and “legal department”.).