The in-house legal spend of US companies has remained stable, despite the fact that law firms have raised their rates. According to a survey of law department managers by legal consulting firm Altman Weil, the total law department expenses in the 154 companies surveyed averaged $868,742 (£486,000) per lawyer in 2003.
Staffing levels also remained unchanged, and the key staffing measure, lawyers per billion dollars of revenue, remained the same at 3.5 lawyers per billion. However, staff positions did change, according to the survey, with the average number of paralegals falling from 1.5 per billion dollars of revenue in 2002 to 0.9. Numbers of administrative staff also fell, with the 2002 figure of 2.4 per billion down to 1.8 administrators per billion.
