An article quotes Susan Hackett, ACC’s general counsel, on “value-based” billing. Hackett says that “surveys show the average client laying out between 15% and 30% of their legal spending this way.” The Economist, July 24, 2010, at 72, does not elaborate, but I doubt very much that the figure is…
I have had little to say over the years about malpractice (See my post of Nov. 8, 2009: malpractice of law firms with 8 references.). Mostly, it has seemed to me that companies with legal departments hire capable firms and professional negligence by them rarely happens. Perhaps my belief is…
An Economist article, July 24, 2010, at 72, steps into the world of law firms billing by the hour. The final paragraph suggests that law firms lose much of their worked time because of their “tired and overworked attorneys who cannot keep track of every piece of work they do.”…
One suggested role for an internal auditor of a legal department involves reviewing and monitoring legal invoices. A recent article from Compliance Week (July 7, 2010) by José Tabuena, senior vice president of governance and compliance with PhyServe Physician Services, recommends that the auditor consider “basic controls,” such as billing…
The source of the quote came from the Jan. 2009 issue of the California Lawyer. “A survey by the Corporate Executive Board found that large-company spending on law firms grew by 49 percent between 2002 and 2005.” OK, ten percent a year during the boom years following a recession. It’s…
Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow said something about doctors that applies equally to lawyers: “[T]the value of information is frequently not known in any meaningful sense to the buyer; if, indeed, he knew enough to measure the value of information, he would know the information itself.” That trenchant shot by Arrow…
Long ago I took the position that it belittles an in-house lawyer to have to obtain approval before retaining outside counsel. If you are mature enough as a lawyer to handle a legal problem, you should be mature enough to know when you need outside support and how to manage…
Am. Legal Tech. Insider (#24) July 2010 summarizes findings from a survey by Smart WebParts of lawyers’ time recording practices. Four findings should perturb in-house lawyers who care about external costs. It should disturb in-house lawyers who struggle to keep external costs from running away that “the average leakage (lawyers…
Law firms can proclaim to the world their quality, experience and prestige by their lush offices, their massive size, and their stratospheric billing rates. Each of these attributes economists would characterize as a “signal.” A signal is easy to observe but costly to imitate and it conveys quality. So far…
What patterns do I see in the first year’s worth of monthly compilations of most interesting posts? (Email me rees@reesmorrison.com if you would like the entire 28-page collection.) It turns out that 39 of them have to do with relations with outside counsel. Because I did not consciously favor or…