Law Firm Marketing/BD Department Size Study 2022

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In January 2022 Calibrate surveyed first-chair Marketing and BD leaders at 81 law firms in the US and Canada.

The goal of our 2022 Law Firm Marketing/BD Department Size Study was to benchmark Partner:Marketing/BD ratios to help our clients understand their competitive position. In summary, our analysis showed that marketing departments are continuing to grow at a healthy pace. Some highlights:

• Total headcount reported to us combined across the 81 US-based firms that participated:
  • 2,366
• Total headcount broken down by revenue band, how many firms and full-time employees (FTEs) in each band, and average assumptions for total US-based firms in each band:
  • Under $50m: 4 firms reporting 15 FTEs
    • Does not correlate to Am Law 200 rankings.
  • $50m – $100m: 10 firms reporting 52 FTEs
    • Does not correlate to Am Law 200 rankings.
  • $101m – $200m: 10 firms reporting 100 FTEs
    • Does not correlate to Am Law 200 rankings.
  • $201 – $500m: 29 firms reporting 487 FTEs
    • There are 69 firms in the Am Law 200 listing for 2022, so taking the averages of the data reported to us from the 29 firms in this band, the total headcount of marketing/BD professionals in this band is approximately 950.
  • $501m – $1bn: 13 firms reporting 431 FTEs
    • There are 33 firms in the Am Law 200 listing for 2022, so taking the averages of the data reported to us from the 13 firms in this band, the total headcount of marketing/BD professionals in this band is approximately 2,500.
  • $1bn+: 15 firms reporting 1,281 FTEs
    • There are 52 firms in the Am Law 200 listing for 2022 so taking the averages of the data reported to us from the 15 firms in this band, the total headcount of marketing/BD professionals in this band is approximately 4,000.

Calibrate estimates that there are approximately 7,500 marketing/BD/comms professionals in the Am Law 200. This headcount could be based in the US or globally, but the firms are US-based. Beyond the Am Law 200, our estimate is closer to 10,000 professionals in this category.

Review the detailed findings below:

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Below is a two-page dashboard that provides an interactive view of the data collected.

The first dashboard has the ability to toggle the survey findings by revenue band and survey year. Applying these filters will provide specified data points for department size, partner headcount, partner to marketer ratio, and average headcount by job category.

The second page of the report provides data on projected team additions. When asked “in the following areas, will you be increasing the marketing & BD team over the next 1-2 years and by how many full-time employees (FTE),” firms noted the number by which they expect each respective department to grow. The table below totals up the collective firm responses to produce the total for each category. This dashboard can be filtered by the number of lawyers and revenue band.

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Get in Touch

Interested in learning more about this research or how your firm can be involved in future studies? Please reach out to Hadleigh Katz, Director of Executive Search.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]