Countless articles rehash the same basic techniques for how in-house counsel should manage litigation. This article takes a different tack; it presents 10 points about U.S.-based litigation management based on qualitative metrics. General counsel and others in legal departments who manage litigation in the United States will find that some of these metrics confirm their experience, others may surprise them and all of these metrics should stimulate thinking. Note that the operational value of several of the metrics can be debated since conclusive, reliable metrics are a challenge to find, and what they tell you about how best to handle volumes of litigation may be elusive. That said, measurement and analysis is the way forward. Therefore, this article counts to 10 by bullet points and has metrics for litigation management at the core.
• 1. Judging from the trade literature, you would think that company-threatening litigation — the infamous “bet-the-company case” — looms everywhere. Not so, especially for large, publicly traded companies. An average company’s legal department might have to contend with one of those potential company wreckers every five years — maybe one monster case a year for most large corporations. Law firms certainly love the big, scary cases because money isn’t an object if survival is at stake. But, as a recent study found, when one-quarter of the law departments averaged fewer than one lawsuit per year, the Big Ones — like Richter 8 earthquakes — are very rare.
