Fewer than 30% of companies made their law firms set a budget for tasks assigned to them. Let alone manage their actual performance to such a budget. 2023 Thompson Hine survey (p. 10 of 16). What other corporate function or business unit gets away with not having budgets for what…
The Point Tis the season to discuss next year’s law firm rate increases. In the American Lawyer’s entry on this topic two days ago, legal industry experts cited a multitude of factors that could drive 2024’s pricing. Except one: Clients’ purchasing power. And clients’ willingness to use their purchasing power.…
The Point A judge’s ruling last week* illustrates which of the above two alternatives is better for the client company. The court, after reviewing a law firm’s bill in a bankruptcy case, found that AmLaw 100 firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP** had overcharged its debtor client by about $1…
The Point My viewpoint comes from firsthand experience. As a lawyer who accepted a corporate client’s offer to run one of its divisions 10 years into my legal career, I was blind to basic management disciplines until I had to answer to the P&L as a general manager. Before changing…
The Point When should your business pay the exorbitant prices of a major law firm? When you need the full attention of the best attorney available for the task presented. But something else is happening. The data say that in 2022 corporate clients were paying proportionately more for the total…
The Point From the tenth consecutive year of LexisNexis CounselLink® 2023 Trends Report: In-depth Perspective on Rising Outside Counsel Billing Rates: 1. Law firm lawyer and paralegal (“timekeeper”) rates increased in 2022 at the highest levels since CounselLink first produced the Trends Report, in 2013, with the average partner rate…
The Point 1. Historically, matters handled by law firms have comprised well over 50% of corporate Legal’s expenditures (Wolters Kluwer LegalVIEW Insights February 2023). 2. Though the vast majority (71%) of corporate clients want their outside law firms to create and manage to budgets on the matters they handle, only…
The Point 1. Legal media, and conversations with my personal contacts, are replete with stories of attorneys in law firms and in-house counsel who are being brutally overworked by hourly billing quotas, and by strained law department budgets with significantly increased workloads (e.g., here and here). 2. This to an…
The Point Though prized by earlier generations of corporate executives for their wide-ranging wisdom, today’s most highly sought-after lawyers tend to be narrowly-focused technicians. How did that come about? The technician specialties are highly rewarded financially, and they offer stable work. And, with the legal system’s intrusive and unreasonable demands…
The Point “It’s nice to meet the newest member of our ‘department of business prevention’.” The head of marketing greeted me with these words when I joined a Fortune 500 company as an associate general counsel. That was in 1986. I don’t think much has changed. This Matters to Your…