RFP processes by major law departments break into the news occasionally (See my post of March 13, 2007 on Pfizer’s process; Sept. 4, 2005 on the auction of General Electric; April 16, 2007 on changes to GE’s process; and April 22, 2007 on Tyco.). Even so, those exceptions prove the…
When a law department sends out an RFP, the department can specify the format it wants the law firms to use when they respond. One style hems in the firms: “In four pages, propose a fixed fee for 24 months to cover only the work described in the appendix.” That…
By contributing author Brad Blickstein, Blickstein Group, on legal service providers: There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal some weeks ago about law firms doing more contingency-fee work for corporations (“Knives Out? Law Firms in New Era, Mar. 7, 2007 at B1). Like many, I’m regularly surprised…
I heard at a conference panel about a couple of law firms, one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom, who sent their lawyers on-site to a business to watch and appreciate the operations. Much like in-house lawyers, who need to study the business activities of their…
Most people would describe a strong relationship as one where over several years a law department has paid a law firm a pile of money. Revenue is certainly one gauge of the strength of an attorney-client relationship. Another measure, however, is the importance of matters for which the law department…
Nothing beats face-to-face. For developing trust, communicating effectively, absorbing the business and its culture, and sharing materials, less personal alternatives such as e-mail, phone, instant messaging, and fax pale in comparison. The law firm that can send a lawyer across the street for a meeting has a leg up on…
It is my belief that most law department lawyers hire a partner first and think of the partner’s firm second. Were I to quantify my impression, I would give 70 percent to the determining influence of the partner. Most in-house counsel who select outside counsel practice in a particular area,…
Tyco, a $42 billion conglomerate, has dramatically reduced the number of law firms serving it in three major areas. According to Of Counsel, Vol. 26, April 2007 at 1, “Tyco selected Kansas City’s Shook, Hardy & Bacon to handle all of its product-liability legal work and Atlanta-based Ogletree, Deakins, Nash,…
As reported in Law Dept Quart., Vol. 2, May-July 2006 at 41, in early 2005 a group led by Jeff Hodge of Datacert, a leading e-billing vendor, and Brad Blickstein, the founding consultant of the Blickstein Group, began a collective effort to update and improve the various code sets. One…
An article in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 15, Feb. 2007 at 31, discusses e-billing at Aon Corporation. Aon has lawyers stationed in 17 countries and supports a truly global operation, so its law department faces a number of compliance issues when it pays the invoices of law firms in many…