New Survey on Government Legal Agency Benchmarks Released
Newtown Square, PA, September 29, 2003 — The Altman Weil 2003 Government Legal Agency Management Benchmarks Survey has been released. The first-of-its-kind survey reports on expenditures, staffing and operational data for US city, county, state, federal and military government legal agencies in 2002.
“Private law firms and corporate law departments have had access to many sources of publicly available benchmarking data for years,” notes Altman Weil principal and government law department expert James Wilber. “Now government legal agencies have a source of information to compare themselves with peer organizations.”
“The data presented in this Survey demonstrate what we have known intuitively — government legal agencies run on a shoestring compared to their corporate brethren, but are further ahead in implementing procedures to effectively track and charge professional time and expenses within their organizations.”
Expenses
Total government legal agency expenses per lawyer averaged $278,492 in 2002. Inside expenses represented 79% of those expenditures, including compensation and benefit expenses of $151,269 per lawyer and occupancy/overhead of $40,927 per lawyer.
In comparison, corporate law departments averaged $863,547 in total expenses per lawyer in 2002, with average per lawyer comp and benefit expenses of $246,825 and average per lawyer overhead of $75,072 (source: 2003 Altman Weil Law Department Management Benchmarks Survey).
Outside counsel expenses for government legal agencies in 2002 were $66,044 on average per lawyer according to the Survey. Corporate law departments in the same period spent an average $480,582 per lawyer.
Staffing
On average, there were 78.4 lawyers in reporting legal agencies. City civil agencies averaged 32.2 lawyers, city civil/criminal agencies had 34.3 lawyers, county civil agencies had 46.4 lawyers, and state/federal/military agencies averaged 269.6 lawyers. The number of lawyers varied proportionately to agency and government entity budget, entity size and the number of citizens served.
The Survey reports the average ratio of paralegals to lawyers as 0.3 (i.e. 3 paralegals for every ten lawyers). This is the same ratio found in corporate law departments in 2002.
Operational Issues
When asked if they track attorney time, 40% of government legal agencies responded ‘yes;’ 15.6% said they do ‘some of the time;’ and 44.4% said they ‘never’ do so. Larger government law departments were more likely to track time than their smaller counterparts according to the Survey.
A total of 53.5% of legal agencies charge their clients for inside attorney time, and 59.1% of government legal departments charge back outside counsel costs to internal operating units all or some of the time.
In significant contrast, only 25.1% of corporate law departments report that they track time, 21% charge internal clients for attorney time, and 51.3% charge back outside counsel costs.
The Survey
The Altman Weil 2003 Government Legal Agency Management Benchmarks Survey, published in cooperation with the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), includes data from 45 government legal agencies. The Survey reports expenditures, staffing and operational data presented by type of agency, size of department, agency and entity budgets, agency size, and number of citizens served. Data were collected in May-July 2003 and report on fiscal year 2002.
The Survey can be purchased for $195 from Altman Weil Publications. Orders and inquiries can be made by calling 888-782-7297 toll free or by visiting our online store at https://store.altmanweil.com.
Altman Weil Publications conducts and publishes numerous surveys of the legal profession including the Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey, the Law Department Management Benchmarks Survey, the LAMA Paralegal Compensation Survey and the Survey of Law Firm Economics. For additional information visit our website at www.altmanweil.com.
