Many people have had trouble defining “quality,” and I won’t join that struggle. Even so, in-house lawyers value quality legal work by law firms (See my post of Oct. 16, 2006: survey data about quality as an attribute of law firms; Dec. 18, 2006: survey of several surveys; July 19,…
A white paper entitled “eLawforum: Transforming Legal Services,” published in February 2004 at 11, describes a large-scale competitive bid. The unnamed Fortune 500 company packaged its labor, employment and ERISA litigation over a projected five-year period. The package envisioned that there would be 450 cases in these practice areas, and…
Many Codes of Business Conduct lay out ground rules that limit what employees, including lawyers, can accept from outside business contacts, such as law firm partners or vendors wooing them for business (See my post of Nov. 5, 2007: law-firm marketing with 8 references.) . One Code states: “You may…
To share thoughts about regional law firms, we need a definition, and one part is the negative definition that they are not large, national law firms (See my post of Dec. 27, 2008: definition of “small” law department; and Dec. 29, 2008: definition of a medium-size department.). Those firms are…
Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse! How can a general counsel realistically expect the lawyer who is ostensibly managing the staffing and services provided by law firm to review the invoices of that firm and materially reduce them? If that lawyer has been on top of the matter and…
As no good deed goes unpunished, so no good idea goes uncriticized (See my post of March 23, 2009: pros and cons of various practices, with 13 references and two metaposts.). Although I like the idea of a law department designating core staff at a firm, I can anticipate objections…
Many law departments would like to have an arrangement with a law firm whereby in-house lawyers or clients can telephone with a quick question and yet not worry about racking up fees. The solution is a retainer agreement whereby the law department pays a firm that has the requisite specialists…
A co-panelist recently mentioned as a cost-control method the practice of requesting higher discounts for work that the law department deems to be of less value. There may be a kernel of a useful idea in that practice, but I am doubtful. Perhaps different discounts make some sense if you…
When they seek competitive bids, many law departments tell firms very precisely how the firms should present their proposal (See my post of March 30, 2008: RFP with 22 references.). Most specify the content they want and don’t want as well as the desired order of the material. A few…
If an inside lawyer cannot call a partner to instruct the firm without first getting permission from a superior, that is a gating process. Without having to obtain approval, the first lawyer might not have thought much about the cost; with an approval process, even a minor delay and explanation…