In an RFP process, a consultant recommends to tell all of the law firms the same thing: “Talk with anyone you’d like to discover how best to meet our needs, and we will answer questions in confidence.” Ron Pol, writing in the ACC Docket, Vol. 25, Sept. 2007 at 23,…
According to an Incisive Media article, Greenberg Traurig worked hard in 2006 to win Alcoa’s original contract for patent work. The firm went through several interviews and submitted a lengthy written proposal with biographies of its key IP attorneys. The term I want to emphasize, however, involved a transfer of…
If you have several firms that handle similar kinds of matters, use their performance against budget to allocate work in the future. The performance of each firm against their original budgets on matters should influence the likelihood of their being chosen to handle more matters. For example, if on a…
For years I supported convergence, but my enthusiasm has waned lately. Inevitably, larger firms remain after a pruning and they charge higher billing rates (See my post of Jan. 3, 2007: increased rates with firm size.). In addition, with electronic billing, the administrative hassle of dealing with scores or hundreds…
In its campaign to change the basis on which corporate counsel pay law firms, the Association of Corporate Counsel has seized on the lodestar of “value.” ACC defines value as a law firm “returning a desired outcome in a matter which corresponds to its appropriate cost and worth.” This definition…
It is simply not true that senior lawyers in corporations view the law firms that vie for their work as interchangeable. At least for the work those lawyers understand well, as buyers they do not at all perceive the firms who do it as fungible. Law firms that do some…
A previous post wonders whether some general counsel, called as a reference for work done by a partner at a law firm, give less glowing reviews than are deserved, because they do not want their access to that partner to be diluted. Why praise, and risk access to, someone you…
I have written from time to time about the capabilities of law firms that complement their lawyers’ abilities (See my post of Oct. 21, 2005: Faegre & Benson litigation support group; Oct. 17, 2005: a few British firms’ on-line offerings; and Nov. 18, 2007: 7 examples of services offered by…
What inspired general counsel first insisted on a budget from a law firm? Who first received an invoice electronically? When did the first law department appoint an official administrator? I do not know these milestone dates and specifics, but I wish I did. I have managed to dig up a…
“What clients want and need: high-quality legal services that deliver solutions at a reasonable cost.” Would that we could all pay merely reasonable amounts for high quality! Pause on this declaration in ACC Docket, Vol. 26, Oct. 2008, at Value Challenge 2. In real life, high quality generally commands high…