A previous post collected posts on tiered fee discounts and showed a breakeven analysis (See my post of Oct. 12, 2009: volume discounts on fees.). How are volume discounts and rate discounts operationally different? Six differences are listed below. Volume discounts delay the benefit to the department; hourly rate discounts…
Research conducted in 2005 and 2009 by the Wellesley Hills Group “analyzed how purchasers of legal services and other professional services – representing US$1.7 billion in purchasing power – made their purchasing decisions.” A chart from the research reproduced in Prof’l. Legal Mgt. Week, 3rd Annual Issue 2009 at 46,…
Here is a misunderstanding. David Galbenski, Unbound: How Entrepreneurship is Dramatically Transforming Legal Services Today (2009), has a chapter by an Eversheds partner, David Smith. Smith writes (at 27), “Some clients have their own finance people deal with our finance people to reach an understanding about the pricing model. This…
A general counsel can request from law firms a ladder of discounts that rise as the law department pays more fees. For example, 10 percent above a million dollars; 12.5 percent above $2 million; 15 percent above $3 million (See my post of Aug. 13, 2006: tiers based on something…
This post may roll the eyes of my law department readers, but give me a chance. Research by the Wellesley Hills Group appears in Prof’l. Legal Mgt. Week, 3rd Annual Issue 2009 at 47. The three most common errors of lawyers when they try to sell are “Did not listen…
A recent article states: “[T]he size of the U.S. and the potential for suits to be brought in 50 states, each with its own laws and regulations, necessitates a much broader network of law firms supporting the legal department. One London-based GC told me that he manages the whole EU…
This blog quoted one of my posts in full, and in a sidebar lists the “Top 17 litigation funds.” I presume the numbers that follow the names indicate the amount raised by each fund and I presume those estimates are in US dollars. One that is missing is Juridica. Intellectual…
“The amounts spent on outside counsel for litigation is much higher for a U.S. legal department versus a similarly sized international company.” That claim by Marcus Linden in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 17, Sept. 2009 at 22, leaves several holes to be patched. I don’t doubt the essential point, but…
An article in Harpers, Vol. 304 Oct. 2009 at 37, explains why investment bankers make so much money: “When you have only one chance to get it right, you tend to open up your wallet and pray,” writes Megan McArdle, and she applies this logic of client profligacy to the…
I did not think that U.S. general counsel typically get out and visit their key law firms on any regular basis. Yet Marcus Linden, writing in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 17, Sept. 2009 at 22, says that “a London-based GC can get out every year and meet with all her…