Hypothesis: the larger the company, the larger the law firms that represent it and an empirical test proposed

A study I wish someone would do would compile several lists of “who represents corporate America.” Each company on the list would have a number for their position on the Fortune 1000 list. Each law firm listed as representing a company would have a number for its position on the National Law Journal 250 list. Firms not on that list would have a number that extrapolates from the NLJ 250 based on the number of lawyers in the firm.

My hypothesis is that company size and average law firm size significantly correlate. If for each company you average the rankings of the law firms it turns to the most, I predict that as you move up the Fortune 1000 list the average law firm rank increases in step. Obviously, we don’t know the amount spent on each law firm, but the overall trend lines should rise in parallel.

If my hypothesis holds (See my post of June 24, 2009: the null hypothesis.), it is even more surprising that total legal spending shrinks as companies grow.