Data from Asia-Pacific legal departments about their size distribution

A survey conducted by Asian-Counsel published findings about the size of the “legal/compliance teams.” Here are the size breakdowns, rounded off: 1 person (7%), 2-5 people (42%), 6-20 people (34%), 21-50 people (10%), and 51 or more (7%). This size pattern, from Asian-Counsel, e-edition, Vol. 7, July/Aug. at 24, matches the size pattern of US legal departments.

Since Asian legal departments also have a bit more than one lawyer for every non-lawyer, internal legal teams of 1-3 lawyers constitute almost 50 percent (See my post of Dec. 27, 2008: recommends 5 or fewer lawyers to be deemed “small” and gives comparable distribution figures.). I have compiled some posts on small legal departments (See my post of Dec. 27, 2008: small departments with 7 references cited.).