Junior lawyers
(0 – 5 years experience) 15%
Range of experience for lawyers in in-house legal departments
Intermediate lawyers
(5-9 years of experience)
31%
*Figures do not total 100% due to rounding.
Range of experience for lawyers in the department by department size
1 - 5 lawyers 6 - 15 lawyers
16 - 30 lawyers 31 - 50 lawyers
42% 48% 10%
51% 35% 14%
70% 22% 8%
40% 34% 26%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Senior lawyers (10+ years of experience)
Intermediate lawyers (5-9 years of experience)
Junior lawyers (0-5 years of experience)
Senior lawyers (10+ years of experience)
53%
they may be overlooking substantial op- portunities for growth. Since only 60 per cent of the depart-
ments that responded to the survey say they have a written retainer agree- ment in place, moving work around to another fi rm would be neither diffi cult or unlikely. In terms of whether or not there is real risk of that, more than half of the respondents said they're likely to be reviewing the arrangements they have with their law fi rms over the next six to nine months. One quarter of the departments have already replaced one of their top law fi rms at some point in the last two years. If you're looking for options of what
to improve upon, our top-level respon- dents pinpointed one area in particular — and it probably won't come as a sur- prise. Most corporate law departments want their external fi rms to be more concerned with costs. It ranked as the number one priority in terms of what fi rms can do to improve the working re- lationship with the department. If you think your fees are on par, there are many other ways respondents say
CndaBusinessLaw_CL_Nov_08 - 1-2 hor.indd 1
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mag.com NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2008 45 10/31/08 10:28:06 AM
