I have speculated on how groups of law departments might share confidential evaluations they make of law firms (See my post of May 14, 2006.). Multi-source data would enable contributor departments to manage their external costs more effectively. What are some metrics-based conclusions general counsel might draw from the larger…
Tom Wakefield, the general counsel of Cessna Aircraft, praises Stinson Morrison Hecker in an ad, one of which is in InsideCounsel, March 2008 at 54 (See my posts of May 27, 2007: five examples of senior lawyers in ads; and Jan. 18, 2008 #1: one more.). It is the small-print…
Better late than never. Today and tomorrow in Orlando, Florida, the Council on Ethical Billing is holding its annual conference. More than 30 “experienced insurance and litigation management professionals” will speak and facilitate breakout sessions “covering litigation management, e-billing, e-discovery and more.” I was not aware of this organization until…
Earlier I made available my collection of six articles on productivity (See my post of March 5, 2008.). Here are another six articles, with additional material from this blog, on the topic of how to control the costs of outside counsel. Click on the link for the PDF –> Download…
In a recent article, published in CCCA, the quarterly of the Canadian Corp. Counsel Association (Fall 2007 at 10), I distinguish between elaborate guidelines for outside counsel and more “constitutional” statements of basic principles. If you want to see a PDF of my article on guidelines compared to law-firm engagement…
Law departments that seek budgets from their outside counsel need to grapple with the threshold (or thresholds) for those budgets. They need some guidelines for what level of anticipated spending triggers a budget. Paul Roy, Director of Finance & Administration of Time Warner Cable’s Law Department, explains that his policy…
As I have mentioned, the Round Table Group is a leading firm to help locate and manage expert witnesses (See my post of Feb. 13, 2008.). Steve Schott of the Group was kind enough gather some information for Law Department Management and to provide some metrics that might interest readers.…
Most in-house lawyers at some point have to review bills from outside law firms (See my posts of Nov. 3, 2005: standardized practices (July 16, 2005: one of the most popular methods of controlling outside counsel costs.). Even with a fixed-fee arrangement, the department needs to receive and review bills…
This blog has come at the topic of fixed fees from a flexibly broad range of perspectives. Some posts have focused on terminology (See my posts of Nov. 22, 2006: “capped fees” vs. “fixed fees”; Nov. 6, 2005: per case vs. per group of cases; Nov. 22, 2006: “fixed” vs.…
Risks exist for law firms who take on matters on a contingency-fee basis. As graphically described in Inside Counsel, Feb. 2008 at 16, if a client chooses down the road not to pursue what would make its law firm eligible for its contingency fee, tough luck for the law firm.…