Tax policies, employment laws, and cultural predispositions discourage companies in some major countries from growing much. In Spain, according to Fortune, July 23, 2012 at 16, and as holds in Italy I believe, very small firms are disproportionately represented as compared to the United States. It is much easier for reasonably-sized companies to sustain a legal department.
Thus, some of my elaborate estimates of the number of law departments around the world – based on population or GDP, for example – may be seriously flawed if business conditions or cultural styles limit the number of companies that reach law department size.