Law Department Management Blog
Less than three months underway, but already one-third of the way to 1,000 law departments, the largest study of benchmark metrics ever assembled has a geographic distribution that is a function of several factors. First, though, let me share the headquarters locations of those legal departments that have been quality checked (another 85-100 are in process):
Asia/India 15 (4.5%); Canada 37 (11.2%), CEE/Russia 25 (7.6%), Europe 59 (17.8%), Latin and South America 9 (2.7%); Middle East/Africa 4 (1.2%), UK 17 (5.1%); and USA 165 (49.8%). A total of 32 countries have at least one law department headquartered in it that has taken part.
English-speaking countries predominate, which means language may have been a barrier to participation, even though the survey is available in French, Italian, Chinese, and Portuguese. Another factor is that access to general counsel in many parts of the world is difficult to obtain. Even when general counsel learn about the survey, those in some parts of the world may be less familiar or comfortable with the benefits of benchmarking or the confidential protections of the basic data they provide. The geographic distribution also reflects the size of legal departments around the world. In general, the larger the department the more likely its managers will want some quantification of performance.
Rally ‘round your country! Take part in the benchmarking study by clicking here to complete the six-minute, confidential online survey based on your fundamental 2009 metrics of staff and spend.