Paralegals and other staff per lawyer in law departments of Fortune 150 German companies

A report based on 2008 data from 56 of the 150 largest German companies produced benchmark averages for paralegals (Rechtsanwaltsgehilfen) and admins (Sekretariatskräfte und weiter Assistenzkräfte) per in-house lawyer. Those departments averaged 0.2 paralegals per lawyer, i.e., five lawyers for every paralegal. US law departments show more leverage, on the order of three-to-four lawyers per paralegal. Admins and other staff ran in the German companies at about 0.3 per lawyer, which converts to three lawyer for each.

Combined, the personnel distribution in German law departments of large enterprises comes to the common ratio in the United States of about one non-lawyer for every lawyer. This benchmark data comes from the General Counsel Benchmarking Report for 2009 of Otto Henning & Co. at 66, based on lawyers worldwide (Rechtsanwälte weltweit) that its participants reported. Michael.Henning@oh-c.com