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Tech Companies Swimming In Lawsuits

conq writes "A new survey shows that the tech industry places third after healthcare and energy companies in the number of lawsuits it deals with. It states that an average tech company faces 42 lawsuits currently, more than the insurance industry!" From the article: "An average U.S. technology company currently faces 42 lawsuits vs. 37 lawsuit for an average company. The tech industry places third, after healthcare and energy companies, in the number of lawsuits it deals with ... Needless to say, that's quite expensive. Nearly a third of these companies spend more than 2% of their gross revenue on legal expenses, according to one of the largest surveys of corporate counsel in America."

4 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Lies, damned, lies, and... by seanadams.com · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Lies, damned, lies, and...


    The firm asked 354 companies in various industries about their top legal concerns.


    Which 354 did you ask? There are thousands of tech companies! Define "tech company". Or is this just the 354 you could think of who'd pick up the phone?


    That probably has something to do with tech companies having by far the greatest number of in-house attorneys managing litigation - an average of nine per company.


    Nine lawyers per tech company - w0w! That's amazing considering that the overwhelming majority of tech companies that I can think of don't even have nine employees. Do you have any idea how many startups there are in California alone? Do six PHDs in a small lab working on, say, the next medical laser breakthrough not count?


    Nearly a third of these companies spend more than 2% of their gross revenue on legal expenses


    Which companies? What about the other two thirds? Are we supposed to think that 2% is a lot to spend on total legal expenses? What's the distribution?


    Olga, your numbers are a crock of shit, and they stinketh. If you're going to give us stats, try starting with something like "of the 100 highest-grossing telecom service companies".

    1. Re:Lies, damned, lies, and... by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree completely, but just because their statistics suck does not mean it is false. Intuitively it seems it would be true, but whatever...

      Anyway, my main point is a question. I understand why in traditional media you would not want to take the space for indepth analysis of the actual numbers (preferably alongside the numbers themselves). Why the hell though, on the web where extra information means adding a line under a word, do they refuse to ever show the actual numbers? Is it really just laziness? It seems like it would be so easy....

    2. Re:Lies, damned, lies, and... by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, Average is a really bad number in this case. If microsoft has 17000 laywers, and 999 companies have 0 lawyers, then the average is 17 lawyers per company. on the other hand, only 0.1% of companies have any lawyers at all. A better number would be the median for the number of lawyers, or the number of lawyers per capita (other employees).

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  2. When the average is 37 lawsuits... by Trigun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think that there's a much larger problem then tech companies facing 42.