Data showing that the larger the legal department the larger the firms it retains

Three authors (Brian Uzzi, Ryon Lancaster and Shannon Dunlap) present tabular data in Laura Empson, ed., Managing The Modern Law Firm: New Challenges New Perspectives (Oxford Univ. Press 2007) at 99. The table shows data for five groups of 133 law firms during 1989-95 organized into quintiles by number of lawyers. For each quintile of size, a column shows the average number of in-house attorneys at their major clients based on National Law Journal league tables.

Starting with the largest quintile, the in-house client average was 53.3 attorneys; the next quintile down had clients with an average of 43.9 attorneys; then up to 49.3; followed by down to 43.5 and the smallest quintile of firms had clients with the smallest average, 34.4 attorneys. The F-statistic for those attorney averages was 5.32. A fairly steady decline, which suggests the intuitive circumstance that bigger law departments retain bigger law firms.