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Data that suggests compliance spending should be about half of total legal spending

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Daniel Lucien Buehr of Schindler Management spoke about compliance in November at ACC Europe’s 17th Annual Conference. Someone who reported on his session wrote the following: “After conducting extensive benchmarking, Buehr maintained that any company must be spending at least 0.25 percent of revenue on compliance or face governance problems.” This quote comes from notes taken for the “European Briefings” supplement to ACC Docket, Dec. 2010 at 4.

Without knowing more about the source, accuracy and completeness of the cited quarter-percent benchmark, little more can be said. After all, the entire legal function of a company could be deemed a compliance effort and typical legal spending runs around 0.5 percent of revenue, twice the figure cited for compliance.

Still, with the many caveats noted and others not noted, it can be said that Buehr has offered a figure that should stimulate further discussion and research.

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One response to “Data that suggests compliance spending should be about half of total legal spending”

  1. Steven B. Levy, Author of Legal Project Management says:
    January 17, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    What’s the #1 goal of the compliance team? To change corporate behavior, or to protect the company against sanctions?
    They’re not the same thing. Changing corporate behavior means exploring all the gray areas… which can come back to bite you in court as judges and opposing counsel seek the bright clear line that exists only in uncomplicated theory. (Obviously certain actions are always wrong, but there are many behaviors that are okay, or not, depending on the specific context.)