Participating legal departments represent companies ranging from millions to tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, ranging from a lawyer`s departments to legal teams with hundreds of employees. Departments that employ at least one legal operations professional are more advanced in all 15 functional areas than those that do not have a dedicated legal operations professional. The same is not true for ALSPs, as 86% said that the number of ALSPs used had not changed. We continue to see that ALSPs are only widely used by large companies with minimal external expenses of $5 million per year. The legal expenses of the companies surveyed averaged $2,592,421 for $1 billion in revenues. Of this amount, US$ 1,263,409 was attributable to internal costs and US$ 1,329,012 to external service providers. Comprehensive benchmarking report with important data on staff, expenses, work assignment and more from the legal department When you look at the data in the report, it becomes clear that the long-standing goal of a company`s legal department – to protect the company from risks and legal issues – was still at the top of the list of many executives, with 46% of executives calling it a top priority. However, a slightly higher number of survey respondents cited efficiency as a higher priority for the Department. Again, this could be a reflection of the pressure that many corporate law departments feel from the company itself to be more efficient and profitable in providing legal services to the company. For example, the median legal staff of six people identified in the 2022 Legal Benchmarking Report was the same as that of the organizations that participated in last year`s edition. At least 90% of departments perform at least some of the following functions internally, where applicable: compliance, contract management, business management and governance, document management, audit, legal, privacy and security, records management and regulation.

This represents nine of the 17 areas listed, and at least eight out of 10 departments also deal with an aspect of due diligence, labor and employment research, legal research, and in-house litigation/legal detention. Due to globalisation, most departments (77%) have a decentralised structure – 35% of them are under disciplinary management by the Advocate General, 22% under functional management. The disciplinary department shows strong growth. Companies with revenues of no more than $1 billion typically employ three members of the legal team, and companies with an average of up to $5 billion employ 15 legal people. The ratio of legal operations professionals to lawyers changed slightly from 7 to 1 in 2021 to 8:1 in 2022. In addition, the data showed that the number of paralegals is growing faster than the number of administrative employees, which is growing faster than the number of legal operations professionals as the number of lawyers increases. Get an analysis of the results of your legal department`s performance and how you compare to your competitors In Thomson Reuters` just-released 2022 state of Corporate Law Departments report, we explore how the best performing legal departments will be those that leverage the momentum of the past two years to actively embrace transformative change, both within their organization and in use. integrate and work on external legal expertise. Legal departments in large organizations report a higher average level of maturity. This is consistent when you look at the company`s revenue, number of employees, and legal fees. Using data from this survey, VAC offers customized benchmarking reports that allow companies to make a true comparison with their peer group based on six criteria.

To turn this data into action, ACC works with Smarter Law to highlight specific areas and actions that legal departments can take to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The top 10% of departments are at an advanced stage of legal maturity, but none are registered in the 15 core functions. Benchmarking reports can be tailored to your company`s peer group based on: Yes. Click on the “Buy Full Report 2022” card at the top and check the product description at the bottom of the online store page. Sample benchmarking report pages, as well as the report`s table of contents and the full list of tables and figures are available by clicking the link in the Product Description section. We observed a shift in legal spending, with departments spending more internally than externally – 54% of statutory spending internally – compared to the 2021 survey, which tended slightly towards higher external spending – 51% on average externally versus 49% domestically. The distribution of internal and external expenses continues to vary greatly depending on the size of the company, with smaller organizations spending more internally on average, while larger departments spending more externally. Twenty-nine per cent of respondents follow internal measures of diversity or have goals regarding the composition of the department – just like last year.

Although the number of those who follow diversity in terms of the composition of external lawyers is lower (21%), it is three points higher than in 2021. This chart lists the 15 characteristics of legal transactions sorted by their average maturity rate on a scale of 1 to 6, from highest to lowest. Leading benchmarking data for general counsel and legal operations managers The top priorities for lawyers in the coming years are extracting information from documents (55%), document automation (54%) and data analysis (45%). Automatic decision-making tools (10%), chatbots (7%) or blockchain (2%) offer high potential, but are still rarely used in legal departments. The report points out that the workforce varies considerably depending on the size of a company. Join our panel of experts to discuss the key findings of the report and how it can be used in conjunction with VAC`s maturity model to advocate for better operational practices leading to more efficient delivery of legal services. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to your purchased report. You can also download your report from the “My Downloads” section of your ACC online account.

Follow these simple instructions to download your report from your online account. The report also found that as the size of a business increases, the percentage of lawyers in the legal department decreases and the percentage of paralegals increases. Major, Lindsey & Africa is the world`s leading legal research firm. Founded in 1982, the firm offers a range of specialized legal recruitment and consulting services to meet the evolving needs of law firms and legal services and to support the career goals of talented lawyers as well as legal and compliance professionals. With more than 25 offices and more than 200 research consultants worldwide, Major, Lindsey & Africa leverages its market knowledge and experience to work with organizations to meet their legal talent needs and provide solutions to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the team.