From a group of almost 40 large US and Canadian law firms, we gathered some metrics about Requests for Proposal (RFPs) that those firms had recently received. On average, the firms received 25 RFPs during the last six months of 2006. The trend, not unexpectedly, was that as firms were larger they received more opportunities to propose.
To respond to those RFPs, the firms devoted for each one on average 46 hours. The data did not permit a breakdown of hours between practicing lawyers and marketing support staff.
The firms were not choosy, since of the RFPs they received they responded on average to 84 percent.
In short, for a set of large North American-based law firms, around four RFPs arrived each month from law departments, the firms proposed on nearly all of them and devoted close to 200 hours a month to do so.