“When lawyers left [a law firm] to join a prospective client, the likelihood that their former employer would receive new business from that company increased.” This finding comes from a study reported in the MIT Sloan Mgt. Rev., Vol. 49, Summer 2008 at 32, on the movement of patent attorneys…
This broad topic – anything law departments do deliberately to change how their law firms operate – has been touched on in many posts (See my posts of Jan. 10, 2008: legitimate requests by legal departments of all law firms with 4 references; Jan. 10, 2008: requests that are fair…
Since my article came out in Legal Times on several problems with discounted billing, I have posted more. Three have appeared (See my posts of April 8, 2008: freeze billing rates rather than negotiate discounts; April 13, 2008: discounts and law-firm margins; and May 11, 2008: prompt-payment discounts and 10…
In April of this year I published an article about how to alleviate some of the concerns law departments and law firms have regarding fee arrangements that deviate from hourly or discounted hourly billing. Click on the following link for a PDF of the Rees Morrison article on alternative fees.…
This finding comes from Inside Counsel, July 2008 at 49, from its recent survey of law department satisfaction with law firms. Loyalty rates of law departments to law firms suggest otherwise, and incessant fee increases by lawa firms suggest otherwise, and the infrequency of competitive bids suggests otherwise, and the…
One question in a recent survey about satisfaction with law firms, from Inside Counsel, July 2008 at 47, asked in-house counsel to rank on importance at least 10 criteria they apply when hiring outside counsel. In order, the eight highest-ranking criteria were responsiveness, industry experience, creative solutions, billing rates, reputation,…
Year after year, InsideCounsel reports that law firms give themselves A grades for the services they deliver much more frequently than law departments give those law firms A grades. Specifically, in the latest survey from Inside Counsel, July 2008 at 47, 17 percent of the law departments gave their firms…
It is easy to say: “Set up bonus incentives for our law firms to motivate better performance.” Sometimes the goals of the company that will earn a law firm a bonus are tangible and straightforward to articulate (See my posts of June 20, 2008: reduce the number of lawsuits for…
Along with a relationship partner at your primary law firms (See my post of Dec. 3, 2005: have a relationship partner at each of your key firms.), you might also want to designate an engagement partner for each major matter. The engagement partner will be the principal contact at the…
Are there techniques to lessen the risk of taking the bait of stellar lawyers at the final presentation, but working thereafter with a switch to earthly types? This question occurred to me when GC New England Mag., 4th Q. 2007 at 27, used the term. I think of bait-and-switch as…