Needed: normalized lawsuits per billion dollars of revenue

One analysis missing from the Fulbright & Jaworski 2008 Litigation Trends Surveyis litigation activity normalized by revenue (See my post of Jan. 1, 2006: explanation of normalized data.). The report, based on input from 358 in-house counsel, tells about percentages of U.S. firms never sued in 2007-08 by under $100 million in revenue, $100 million to $999 million, and more than $1 billion. It also gives percentages for those three revenue brackets of companies “tagged with more than 20 new suits in the past year.” Third, it gives figures for them of big-money suits, where more than $20 million at stake.

Fine, and that data adds to our knowledge, but it would be more useful to show new suits per billion dollars of revenue and big-ticket suits per billion dollars of revenue. The calculations are easy and the and the insights more useful. Obviously, bigger companies are defendants or plaintiffs more often than smaller companies are, but when you normalize the data you may unveil a more nuanced conclusion – and a more precise one – about how litigation exposure correlates to revenue