The HBR Law Department Survey
The leading source of benchmarking data for law departments
Legal Spending | Staffing | Operations | Technology | Outside Counsel Management | Compensation
Purchase the 2022 Survey
The 2022 HBR Law Department Survey is now available for purchase.
Participate in the 2023 Survey
Registration to participate in the 2023 HBR Law Department Survey is now open.
Value to Your Law Department
Unparalleled detail and insights. With over 400 metrics, our reports offer detailed legal staffing and spending breakouts by industry, region and company size.
Easy to access, customized online dashboards. Our reporting platform compares your organization’s data to industry benchmarks making it easy to review and share with leadership how your department stacks up.
Consultation from industry experts. More than just providing data, our goal is to help position your organization for success through a personalized review session with HBR experts and invitations to exclusive roundtable events.
19+
years of historical benchmarking data
150+
companies participate in the survey annually
65%
of the participation base is in the Fortune 500
30+
data cuts across industry, revenue, department size, and region.
Benchmarks From 400+ Available Metrics
Below are just a few of the 400+ data points from the latest cycle of our annual Law Department Survey, the leading source of benchmarking data for in-house teams to assess and measure performance.
How does your law department compare?
84%
anticipate increased legal demand in the coming year
56%
anticipate an increase in lawyer headcount in the coming year
49%
ranked diversity as a top priority when selecting outside counsel
81%
have developed a strategic technology roadmap to guide investments
Example benchmarks from 400+ available metrics
Legal spending
- Legal spending as a % of revenue
- Balance of inside vs. outside counsel spending
- Allocation of fees by practice area
Outside counsel management
- Average hourly rate for top billing firms
- Outside counsel cost control initiatives
- Use of alternative fee arrangements
Legal staffing + organizational structure
- Lawyers per $B in revenue
- Ratio of lawyers to support staff
- Size and scope of legal ops team
Legal technology + ALSPs
- Adoption of law department technology
- Vendor use and satisfaction
- Use of alternative legal service providers
Work demands + management
- Challenges facing the law department
- Methods for handling increased demand
- Expected staffing and spending changes
Compensation
- Base salary, cash bonus, target cash
bonus, and long term incentives by
title/position for lawyers and law
department staff
Online Reporting Platform
HBR’s dynamic online reporting platform provides easy access to survey result graphs and metrics. The reports also include enhanced visualizations that make it easier to share the results with your company leadership. Participants in our survey receive a significant discount on portal access with options to select data cuts by industry, revenue segment, and law department size.
