Search

With metrics and analytics spreading into every profession and discipline, evidence-based decision-making is on the rise. Legal practice is also concerned by this trend, as reflected in the growing use of quantitative data by law firms with respect to their corporate clients. Based on the examination of the potential uses of legal indicators in an evidence-based approach to transnational law practice, this article argues that indicators can provide lawyers operating in a transnational context with a relevant source of evidence to move towards a quantitatively informed practice of law. While most academic literature on legal indicators focuses on their governance effects, writings on evidence-based law have not yet investigated the contribution that indicators can make to law practice. This article aims to bridge this gap. It provides a methodological assessment of eight major business law indicators and illustrates four potential applications: (1) ranking and benchmarking, (2) screening, (3) measuring legal risk, and (4) supporting litigation. The article concludes that transnational lawyers should employ transnational legal indicators on a daily basis as an opportunity to reengineer legal practice along the lines of the management culture in which transnational firms now live in.