Writing in Legal Week, Nov. 23, 2006 at 22, Derek Bedlow summarizes three years of surveys of FTSE 500 legal departments (See my post of Dec. 4, 2006 on the first part of Bedlow’s quote.): “the proportion of work that they send out has decreased from 50% in 2004 to…
I would be surprised if they do. I think a relationship partner in a large law firm may let a general counsel of a primary client know somewhat beforehand that the merger is in the works or about to be consummated, but not seek approval. The conflict of interest research…
There is so much demand to compare the costs of legal matters that different groups in the law department industry will gradually develop databases. E-billing vendors will consolidate data from their customers once they gain permission and figure out the kinds of matters that lend themselves to analysis. Procurement groups…
A law firm partner whose client asks for more hours of individual service than the partner wants to provide has no reason to discount hourly billing rates; indeed, has reason to raise them. The same argument regarding the fully-booked partner applies to the fully-booked associate – unless you really can…
Every year DuPont’s law department surveys its 38 or so Primary Law Firms. According to Met. Corp. Counsel, Feb. 2006 at 49, the survey has in the past gathered data or thoughts on topics such as diversity, invocation of ADR, and contributions to various initiatives. In 2006 DuPont sought feedback…
Frequently, law departments try to select and maintain a handful of lawyers at a firm to work on their matters. A core team makes sense, since its members and the law department lawyers develop familiarity and trust. Even so, a strictly-defined team poses problems when an emergency arises that demands…
Law firms that have served a company for a while fulsomely tout their “knowledge of the company.” Law departments that favor a firm always point out how the firm “knows our company and our people.” Indeed, and all to the good, perhaps. The nagging doubt has to do with whether…
If a general counsel wants to assess how well the lawyers in the department manage outside counsel, answer these questions: Relative to peers or some other benchmark, how frequently does a particular lawyer call upon outside counsel? When measured, this rough figure amounts to outside spend per individual in-house lawyer.…
Bucking the tide of convergence (See my post of April 2, 2006 on the Wilmington wave.), those law departments that try to match the cost/quality proposition of a law firm to a particular matter face one obvious difficulty. It may be very difficult to determine early on whether a new…
A few companies in America have such name recognition that almost any law firm squirms and sweats to be able to represent them. The larger the law firm, though, the less even a headline client softens their billing policies though a smaller firm will still covet a prestige client and…