KPIs for Corporate Lawyers to Focus on in 2023

The legal field is more competitive than ever, especially the subspecialty of corporate law. This reality holds true for private law firms that take on multiple clients and in-house legal teams employed by a single corporate entity.

While the corporate world has generally been quick to adopt new technologies and practices to drive efficiency, legal departments often lag behind. Common shortcomings may include an over-reliance on manual processes, a failure to leverage cloud-based entity management software, and a lack of data analysis.

With that in mind, we have created this guide to KPIs for corporate lawyers. The term “KPIs“ or “key performance indicators” is a broad phrase that refers to various traceable metrics. By continuously tracking and analyzing core KPIs, you can gain valuable insights regarding the performance of your firm or in-house legal team.

Below, we discuss several KPIs that you should start tracking in 2022. Cumulatively, these KPIs can help you better understand your strengths and weaknesses so that you can optimize internal processes.

Most Important KPIs for Corporate Lawyers

With the right cloud-based entity management solution, you can track dozens of KPIs. However, some metrics provide more relevant information than others. If you want to get the most out of your performance data, it is vital that you are paying attention to the right KPIs.

The best KPIs for corporate lawyers to monitor include:

KPIs for Individual Performance

Every corporate legal team should be tracking individual performance metrics. These metrics allow you to determine which team members are performing up to expectations and which are not.

A few examples of individual performance KPIs for corporate lawyers include:

• Billable hours worked
• Number of matters received
• Number of matters resolved
• Tasks completed
• Revenue generated per month

Once you begin tracking these KPIs, you can identify your top performers. You can also adjust your allocation of resources accordingly in order to ensure the success of the firm as a whole. 

Finance-Related KPIs

Another group of metrics that all corporate legal teams should track is financial KPIs. These KPIs include data on metrics such as average fee per matter, net revenue per matter, and revenue collected per month.

Financial metrics are by far the most effective way of gauging the overall health of your legal team or firm.

If you are collecting data regarding financial health by using entity management software, you can easily convert this information into essential tax documents and other relevant reports. Not only will this allow you to better assess your financial productivity, but it will also reduce the workload on accounting and paralegal personnel.

Marketing KPIs

The two categories of KPIs for corporate lawyers outlined above are good for both in-house teams and private firms. Our third group of metrics is uniquely beneficial to independent entities.

Like virtually all other types of businesses, corporate law firms must advertise in order to acquire new clients and build their brand. However, it is essential that these entities find a way to market efficiently and effectively. The most pragmatic way to measure the efficacy of digital marketing efforts is to track several key KPIs, including:

• Website traffic generated
• CAC or customer acquisition cost
• Click-through rate
• Bounce rate (percentage of site visitors leaving quickly)
• The ratio of the marketing budget to the total billing amount
• Number of new clients acquired per month/campaign
• Leads generated
• Conversion rate (leads to paying clients)

Analyzing these KPIs for corporate lawyers will help you launch more effective marketing campaigns and acquire clients efficiently.

Customer Satisfaction KPIs

Ultimately, the field of corporate law is still a customer service industry. If your clients are not satisfied, then your law firm will falter, not flourish. While KPIs for corporate lawyers are typically focused on tracking hard data such as revenue generated, you can also quantify customer satisfaction using metrics such as:

• Number of matters closed per month
• Total number of referrals received
• Retention rates
• Client satisfaction scores (information gathered with experience feedback surveys) 

Corporate law firms that embrace the concept of collecting client feedback will be able to drastically improve their business practices. In-house teams can also reap the benefits of a customer service-centric approach, as they will easily be able to demonstrate the value that they provide to the organization that employs them.

How to Track Corporate Lawyer KPIs

Now that we have identified some of the most relevant KPIs for corporate lawyers, you may be wondering how you begin tracking these metrics. The answer lies in legal technology that helps you make data-driven decisions. 

Cutting-edge solutions, like cloud-based entity management, streamline the entire entity management workflow. This software keeps track of metrics and presents data in an easily digestible format. 

In addition, entity management technologies facilitate the automation of traditionally redundant processes, expedite document generation, and optimize the productivity of corporate legal teams.

If you want to harness the power of KPIs for corporate lawyers, then investing in legal technology, such as cloud-based entity management software, is the clear pathway to accomplishing this goal.