This article explains one essential analysis of nearly all legal benchmark reports: breakdowns of data by industry. It sounds so straightforward, but in fact such analyses rely on several behind-the-scenes methodology decisions by those who produce law department benchmarks. This article brings out some of those subtleties and suggests good practices both for those who offer comparative metrics and those who manage law departments based on the findings.
For benchmark metrics regarding law departments such as outside counsel spending stated as a percentage of company revenue general counsel typically see medians, averages and quartiles by industry. Perhaps the report states that manufacturing lawyers earn less than technology lawyers; that telecommunications companies face fewer lawsuits than companies in the pharmaceutical industry; or that retail has three lawyers for every billion dollars of revenue as compared to financial services with more than eight lawyers per billion. Industry equals insight.
