One Lawyer Per Billion in Revenue
This just in from Patrick Lamb's blog: What is Up with the Auto Industry?
Corporate Legal Times reports on the 200 largest legal departments. At the end of the report is a breakdown by industry of the number of attorneys in a company per billion dollars in revenue. For example, in the Aerospace and Defense category, the listed companies average 4 lawyers per billion dollars in revenue. Here are some others:
Commercial Banks 6 lawyers
Forest and Paper Products 4
Pharmaceuticals 6
Tobacco 3
Industrial Manufacturing 3
Automobile 1
One lawyer per billion dollars! Far and away the worst ratio in the group. What is going on with the auto industry?
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Pat, I couldn't agree more. No wonder Detroit is in the doldrums -- they are are underlawyered! Compare this to thriving cities like New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles -- their economies are on fire and they are also ankle-to-neck in lawyers. The auto industry should be hiring more lawyers, and it's up to us marketers to get them to see the sense in doing so. :)
