Thoughts on quantifying “return on talent” by use of a talent index

No one has devised a solid, generally-accepted methodology to measure talent in a law department. One approach is to ferret out several indicators of quality and create an index (See my posts of May 17, 2006 about a litigation index; Aug. 28, 2005 on a client satisfaction index; Aug. 14, 2005 on a trademark index; and Sept. 10, 2005 on an overall law department performance index.).

Some components of such an index might include: CLE spending per lawyer; the quality ranking of law schools attended by the lawyer team, using the results from U.S. News & World Report; years the lawyers spent at an NLJ 250 law firm; dollars invested per lawyer in knowledge management initiatives; collegiality (See my post of Feb. 7, 2006 on the Group Development Questionnaire.); average tenure with the law department (See my post of Nov. 6, 2006 about job security.); articles published; bar leadership positions held; MBAs, LLMs and other post-graduate degrees granted; and percentage of lawyers who clerked after law school. Each component can be scored and weighted to create an index.