Legal teams are getting outnumbered by their clients and facing increasingly intense workloads, according to the “2026 Law Department Management Benchmarking Report” published by the Association of Corporate Counsel.
Each lawyer is supporting a median of 367 company employees as of this year following a steady increase in volume. The median number of lawyers per US$1 billion in revenue also dropped to three this year; according to ACC, this reflects a trend of leaner staffing relative to corporate earnings.
Total legal spend as a percentage of company revenue fell to 0.43 percent this year - the lowest in six years.
“Legal departments are being asked to take on more strategic responsibility, but they aren't necessarily getting the investment to support that increased mandate,” said Greg Richter, global vice president of in-house counsel recruiting at global search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, in a statement.
The report also noted that alternative legal service providers and technology/overhead comprise just 3 and 5 percent of their budget categories, respectively. According to ACC, this is indicative of restricted financial leeway for operational shifts spurring innovation.
The report also found that highly regulated sectors like information technology and pharmaceuticals had considerably higher lawyer counts and spend ratios than low-margin sectors such as retail and energy.
The “2026 Law Department Management Benchmarking Report” is the seventh edition of this resource. It was released through a collaboration between the ACC and Major, Lindsey & Africa. The results were drawn from a survey for 576 legal departments in 45 countries. The ACC put out the call for respondents in February – the survey ran until April 10.
Last year, the ACC noted that corporate legal departments were recording increasing levels of work-related stress in its report “The State of Stress Among In-house Legal Professionals”. Legal leaders and those handling high-demand sectors experienced the greatest pressure.
“When stress levels become unsustainable, the ripple effects extend well beyond the legal team — affecting the quality and speed of business decisions, increasing operational and compliance risks, weakening collaboration, and ultimately undermining the organization’s ability to retain critical talent,” said Jason L. Brown, ACC president and chief executive officer.