Huge difference in a key benchmark across geographic regions

Data from the 500-plus legal departments in General Counsel Metrics benchmark survey highlights how the costs of legal services swing widely in different parts of the world. One example is the subject of my latest Morrison on Metrics column for InsideCounsel: total legal spending – inside budget plus fees paid external counsel – expressed as a percentage of revenue.

I compared 201 legal departments whose companies are from the United States to 72 legal departments based in western continental Europe. On total legal spending (TLS) as a percentage of revenue, the US was twice as high (See my post of May 24, 2010: normalize spend data for a country by its tort costs.). See the column for a discussion of reasons and consequences of this huge difference.