Corporate Law Departments Hiring More and Spending More

• Posted by Geoffrey G. Gussis on September 28th, 2006


• Filed in Law Department Management

Law.com reports that hiring and spending are up significantly in corporate law departments:

"For years, it seems, corporate law departments have been discussing offering alternative fee arrangements and curbing overall spending.

But, according to a survey of law department spending released last week, it’s all talk.

The Altman Weil and LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell survey found an overall increase in law department spending of 7.9 percent to an average spending of $914,000 per lawyer for fiscal year 2005.

The two main drivers of that growth, Altman Weil consultant James Wilber said, were an increase in outside legal expenses and an increase in internal hiring by law departments.

Outside legal costs rose by 5.5 percent to an average of about $602,000 per lawyer. The survey also found a 19 percent increase in internal hiring with lawyers per billion of revenue rising from 2.93 lawyers per billion in revenue to 3.49 lawyers per billion in revenue."

Link: Corporate Law Departments Hiring More and Spending More.