ACLA/CLANZ Legal Department Benchmarking Report 2008

As featured in

National Business Review, Business Herald, Australian Financial Review, Boardroom (Institute of Directors), Lawyers Weekly, NZ Lawyer, Australian Legal Business, Sunday Star-Times and LawFuel, plus commentary by Peter Davis (Exari), Ron Baker (Verasage) and Simon Tupman (Lawyers with a Life)

(see media commentary below)

Detailed information and data-rich resource package helping legal departments develop and refine strategies that could help generate considerable savings.

Plus a wealth of information for law firms more effectively to connect with the client perspective; how clients select and manage law firm relationships.

More than 125 corporate and government organisations with an annual legal spend of more than $1 billion participated in this ground-breaking trans-Tasman research.

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For legal departments "...a huge collection of metrics hitting just about every performance point a legal department needs to make." National Business Review

For law firms   "...law firms can see how legal departments really operate. They need to. One of the more disturbing facts ... is that most respondents consider that firms other than their own could do their work equally well." National Business Review

More information

Front Cover    List of Contents      List of Figures       List of Tables       Foreword       Executive Summary

Media commentary

Yes, there is a lawyer in the house, Business Herald (includes "How we compare") Pressure to limit costs means companies relying more on in-house teams.

How we compare, Business Herald

How many lawyers does a company need to make $1 billion

Billion dollar lawyers, National Business Review

New report has enough data and metrics to make a data wonk's eyes water.

Inhouse legal report, National Business Review

Huge collection of metrics hitting just about every performance point a legal department needs to make.

Benchmarking data for Australasian law departments, The Engine Room

Law dept benchmarking has long been available in the US. Similar data is far less common elsewhere. So, this Report is big news. Workload is such a big problem, because few legal departments actively try to improve productivity and deliver meaningful workload reductions. Why?

Why law departments struggle to improve productivity, The Engine Room

Some law depts are unable to unlock potentially millions of dollars in savings, because of general counsel background and attitudes, organisational culture, resources and in the case of Australian and New Zealand law departments the dearth of industry data has meant a lack of awareness of what's actually possible.

New report helps reduce legal costs, Boardroom (Institute of Directors)

Does your company spend too much on lawyers?

Companies look in-house as legal bills soar, Sunday Star-Times

Law firms which charge $600 an hour for services to many of the biggest companies may face shrinking customer bases according to new research.

Outlook: continuing growth, NZ Lawyer

Trend towards growing in-house teams

The drift towards in-house legal teams, LawFuel

Law firms need to do better at understanding corporate clients to slow drift towards in-house teams.

In-house work is never done, Australian Financial Review

In-house departments are set to get bigger but in-house lawyers overworked.

The drift towards in-house legal teams, LawLife newsletter

Organisations could save millions in legal fees, and law firms could identify how to better understand corporate clients and slow the drift towards in-house teams.

GCs expect to increase size of legal teams, Australian Legal Business

Growth of in-house legal teams expected. Surprisingly, reducing outside counsel costs ranked only fifth on GCs list of most pressing issues. [See "Benchmarking Data..." and "Why law departments struggle.." for commentary on this article]

Legal costs too high say clients, Scoop

Extensive new report says the best way for law firms to improve working relationships with their top organisational clients is to be more concerned with costs.

Efforts to control costs have little effect, Australian Financial Review

Fees remain the central issue for in-house lawyers.

Rebates are just part of the overall costs picture, Australian Financial Review

Response to "Efforts to control legal costs have little effect". Why the suggestion that private sector getting better deal from law firms not necessarily the case.

Firms max out in-house budgets, Lawyers Weekly

Report findings suggest that firms could be affected if they fail to adapt to increasingly spohisticated client demands.

Billing by the hour - is there a better way? LawFuel

Prominent QC says lawyers undercharging major commercial cases. Corporate counsel might disagree, survey suggests.

The Kiwis fed up with the billable hour, Ron Baker

Time billing stranglehold? Trailblazing firms have ditched billable hour and timesheet.

Boutique practices set the fashion, Australian Financial Review

About two thirds of large corporate and public-sector clients of law firms are planning to review their arrangements in the next two years - and many are predicting a shift away from the national firms towards boutiques.

Figures & tables

Electronic copies of figures and tables in the ACLA/CLANZ Legal Department Benchmarking Report 2008 will soon be available for purchasers' use within their own organisations. These are high resolution jpeg’s, suitable for pasting into a variety of internal documents.

You will need a username and password to access these resources.