Consultant Jeffrey Brandt in Law Tech. News, Nov. 2010, at 30, gives three reasons why Richard Susskind’s message of change is “finally hitting the windshield of firm leaders.” Metaphorically in synch, my reaction to each is to squash his impressions. “Law firms no longer can control how they will interact…
One threat law departments always raise when the discussion turns to whether clients should be able to retain lawyers on their own – “Manager X might hire his golf club buddy.” I wonder about this worry, since Manager X has a bottom line to protect, and if golf buddy over-charges…
Law departments that converge – significantly shrink the number of law firms used – can take pending cases away from the firms that don’t make the short list or they can bar in-house counsel from giving them more. The former raises transition fears; the latter stretches out the payoff of…
At first blush, it makes sense that in major litigation a law department might unleash one firm to fight tooth and nail and coax another firm to sing soothingly, calm the savage beast, and seek common ground for settlement. I have myself suggested the advantages of such a good-cop bad-cop…
The IBA Daily News, Oct. 5, 2010 at 1, quoted a panelist from a major New York firm on his firm’s view of discounts. “We look at hourly rates subject to discounts on highly leveraged work. So on an antitrust investigation with one partner and 20 associates, we would heavily…
As reported in Corp. Counsel, Nov. 2010 at 18, about British Airways, “70 percent of the London-based airline’s legal work is conducted under fixed fees.” If you have historical data, if you bundle enough work on prospect, and if you craft the process and arrangement intelligently, you can enjoy the…
When I give presentations on outside-counsel cost control methods, I often commend law departments that do not pay full rates for first- and second-year associates. A hand usually shoots up and the person asks “But how will the next generation of lawyers learn?” My response is that shareholder dollars should…
Maybe my math is wrong, but Royal Dutch Shell appears to have uncapped a gusher for eight law firms. A paragraph in Corp. Counsel, Nov. 2010 at 18, states that the 800-lawyer in-house team recently “cut its list of outside firms from 60 to just eight.” If we apply the…
Maybe my math is wrong, but Royal Dutch Shell appears to have uncapped a gusher for eight law firms. A paragraph in Corp. Counsel, Nov. 2010 at 18, states that the 800-lawyer in-house team recently “cut its list of outside firms from 60 to just eight.” If we apply the…
Recently, the general counsel of two different legal departments have described their departments’ practice to send law firms an engagement letter for each matter. I scratch my head and wonder how that benefits the department (See my post of Feb. 20, 2007: engagement letters with 5 references.). Scratching in vain,…