When is it unfair for law departments to force changes on the operations of law firms they retain? This is the third of a series of posts on this question (See my posts of Jan. 10, 2008 on legitimate requests by legal departments of all law firms; and Jan. 10,…
Many law firms routinely give billing-rate discounts, but what is the best or most common practiced for telling clients about their savings on the invoice? Some firms simply reduce the billing rates of the lawyers who work on the client’s matters and send in the bill without self-promoting fuss and…
An earlier post discussed interventions by law departments in law-firm operations where the requirements are well founded and reasonable (See my post of Jan. 10, 2008.). Beyond what seems fair for law departments to ask of all their firms, this post considers requirements by law departments that seem to me…
That law departments intervene all the time in their firm’s internal operations is obvious (See my post of Dec. 21, 2005 with five examples and four references; and July 5, 2006 with six examples and eight references.). What is not obvious is where to draw the line. This post begins…
Law departments require in their outside counsel guidelines that firms charge them no more than the firms’ “actual costs” of photocopies, faxes, messengers and other internal costs. That limit sounds definitive, but it is nearly impossible for law firms to calculate the actual cost of any of those tasks. To…
“The theory of transaction cost economics (TCE) provides insight into when firms should perform a task internally versus when it is more economical to outsource a task. TCE advises against outsourcing when the firm is at risk of becoming dependent on a supplier because the supplier either has or develops…
Let’s create a term. Each time a lawyer in a law department asks a partner in a law firm (a firm, for simplicity) to handle a matter, when that particular lawyer has never instructed that firm before, let’s call it a “first instruction.” Thereafter, if that same lawyer asks the…
This advice may sound corny or ineffective to some general counsel, but to others – those who face a hemorrhage of payments to a firm for a period of weeks or months – it is at least a tool to consider. Request your primary firm on a very expensive matter…
Previously I took a position in support of billing rates frozen for the duration of major matters (See my post of Dec.17, 2007.). With such an arrangement, a law department would like to know how much savings might be projected from that technique. Based on historical figures, law firms typically…
An article in GC Mid-Atlantic, Sept. 2007 at 15, reviews the usual reasons given for the durability of billing by the hour (See my post of Oct. 26, 2005 for my own article on the topic.). The author, my former partner Dan DiLucchio of Altman Weil, makes a point that…