The difference between a rebate and a discount surfaced in a previous post (See my post of April 23, 2006 on the economic point of the distinction.). What I didn’t write about then was the sheer administrative hassle of rebates. Here is a comment to that point from a British…
In the future, an efficient method to locate counsel for some specialty might be an internet search. With the advanced capabilities now available on various search engines, and with the advent of law-focused portals (See my post of April 1, 2007 on general law portals.), a general counsel might by-pass…
A downside of any competitive bid process is that several firms lose. They are all disappointed and crave some explanation or lesson to be learned – other than the evident fact they may conclude that the selection was wired (See my posts of Sept. 3, 2006 about sham competitions; Oct.…
A small item in Atlantic, Vol. 301 Jan./Feb. 2008, at 26, suggests a technique that both law departments and law firms should be aware of. When houses are priced in specific dollar amounts, rather than in prices that end with one or more zeros, buyers will pay more. To wit,…
CounseltoCounsel, Oct. 2007 at 12, describes four online tools from Martindale-Hubble that allow in-house lawyers to find out more about law firms they retain or might retain (See my post of Dec. 10, 2007 with its tips for selection of foreign counsel.). Client reviews, on an objective third-party site, is…
Since I published my recent article on core teams for matters handled by law firms (Download rees_morrison_core_teams_in_law_firms.pdf), I have come back repeatedly to the fundamental point: law departments should push their firms to limit the number of timekeepers who work on a matter (See my post of Dec. 8, 2006…
Whether your legal department receives invoices from law firms in hard copy or “soft copy” (e-billing formats or PDFs), you are probably not extracting as much insight from them as you could. My recent article on how to analyze law firm bills covers a number of techniques that will deepen…
An item in Managing Ptr. Advocate, Vol. 14, Dec. 2007, at 7, lays out the results from managing partners from 70 law firms who selected the “most pressing issue facing your law firm today.” Outstripping the other six choices was “Maintaining and enhancing profitability,” which got 57 percent of the…
We pay careful attention to what sellers – law firms – ought to do for buyers – law departments. An article in MIT Sloan Mgt. Rev., Vol. 49, Winter 2008 at 77, flips the normal view and discusses the obligations of buyers in a relationship. It introduces a two-way balanced…
An article in MIT Sloan Mgt. Rev., Vol. 49, Winter 2008 at 19 defines a brand as a “customer centric” attribute, a perception by customers, say of a law firm, as to the qualities of that law firm (See my post of Nov. 28, 2007 on law-firm brands and references…