Having presented the ten most fundamental benchmarks for legal department managers, all of them available from various sources, I mention here ten benchmarks that many general counsel may wish were more available (See my post of July 9, 2009: ten crucial metrics.).
- Effective hourly rates of law firms that account for 75 percent or more of fees paid
- Law firms paid more than $5,000 in a year per billion dollars of revenue
- Settlements, fines and judgments paid as a percentage of revenue
- Lawyers, who practice some law but are not part of the legal department, even by decentralized reporting – as a percentage of legal department lawyers
- Paralegals by practice area
- International legal spend as a percentage of total legal spend
- Percentage of lawyers other than in largest location
- Average years of lawyers with the law department as that number relates to lawyers per billion
- Outside counsel managed per lawyer in the department who manages outside counsel
- Chargeable hours actually worked