In-House Counsel

Performance metrics differ from benchmark metrics

By Rees Morrison

When I think of benchmark metrics, I think of a sizable number of law departments each contributing similar data, and a presentation visually or with the quartiles and averages of those numbers. Then each participating law department can compare its own figure with the benchmark figures, such as technology spending per legal staff member.

When I think of performance metrics, I think of a single law department's measures of activity or output. For example, a law department that closed 15 cases in the past year has identified a performance metric. Another performance metric is the number of law firms paid by a law department during a year.

So much for definitions. The relationship between performance and benchmark metrics is that benchmark results come from aggregations of performance metrics described in graphs or statistical terms.

Full post as published by Law Department Management on January 14, 2009 (boomark / email).