Law firms have more appetite to grant discounts, provide extra services, manage staff strictly, and make other concessions on typical matters if they see the possibility of a feast in the future. “We’ll diet now, but somewhere down the road let us gorge.” The firms that agree to price breaks and extra services now want to have rights of first refusal or very favorable consideration for the mega-merger, the billions-at-stake lawsuit, the global patenting project or whatever causes them to salivate.
Continuity of the key players at the law department makes a huge difference for those firms. The same person who cuts costs has to be in the decision-making role when the big one comes. What is more, law firms must believe that person will still be there, will still remember the lean past, and will invite them to the banquet.