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Law departments bulked up staff numbers this past year, while total legal spending began to stabilize, according to a new survey.

HBR Consulting's 2017 Law Department Survey, released this week, indicates that there was a zero percent change in total legal spending year over year between 2016 and 2017.

The survey from the consultancy for legal organizations and corporations is in its 14th year and includes data from almost 300 participants, primarily from Fortune 500 level companies.

Median legal spend internally increased by 4 percent this year, up 1 percent over the previous year's results. Meanwhile, median outside counsel spend saw zero change from the year prior. Last year's survey showed a 2 percent median decrease in outside counsel spending. 

“For the past several years, law departments have continued to be cost-conscious, particularly when it comes to outside counsel,” said Lauren Chung, HBR Consulting's managing director and the editor of the survey. “This year it was a tremendous effort by law departments to keep outside counsel spend steady, because outside counsel rates are increasing. They're still using outside counsel, but the way they're using them continues to evolve.”

Forty-three percent of departments reported to have increased their total number of lawyers, and the same number reported an increase in total legal staff, including nonlawyers. Twenty-five percent reported no change, and 32 percent reported a decrease in staffing.

The majority of departments (58 percent) expect to maintain the same number of attorneys next year. Thirty-one percent expect attorney staffing to increase, and only 11 percent anticipate a decrease in staffing.

“This data is consistent with what we're seeing in the market that departments are investing internally and they are effective in controlling costs,” Chung said.

Respondents from the survey reported a median revenue of $10.7 billion for their companies, and the median total legal spend was $32.5 million.

On average, in-house lawyers reported total annual compensation—including salary, cash bonus and long-term incentives—of $321,000, up 3.5 percent from the previous year. This includes lawyers at all levels, including CLOs and GCs. The median total compensation was $282,000, up 1.4 percent from 2016.

Most areas of compensation have grown compared to last year, except for bonuses. Most survey respondents stated that bonuses were tied to company performance, which is the most likely reason this pay component was down, Chung said.