In-House Law Departments Are Growing

According to HBR Consulting’s annual survey, more jobs are opening up in in-house corporate department as the workload increases. 

· More than 50% of participants reported an increase in the total number of legal staff worldwide between 2009 and 2010, while only 29% reported a decrease. 

 More than 80% of participants commented that their company’s legal needs are increasing.

  More than one-third attached high importance to increasing the number of in-house lawyers; only 11% responded that they would increase the use of outside counsel.

  More than 40% of companies expect to increase the number of lawyers in the U.S. and outside the U.S. during the coming year.

  The median expected increase in lawyer staffing was 10%.

Part of the reason for the expansion: “The median fully-loaded inside hourly cost per lawyer is approximately 46% below the median average hourly rate of the company’s top three billing firms.”  

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