As reported in the Wall St. J., May 2, 2007, at B2, around 2005 Pitney Bowes “arranged for its ‘procurement’ department to work with the legal department on managing costs.”
Perhaps I read too much into it, but the verb “arranged” cloaks whether the strategic sourcing group (procurement) was thrust upon the lawyers or whether the lawyers on their own invited them in.
Be that as it may, this blog has mentioned at least six law departments that have worked with their internal purchasing/procurement/sourcing groups (See my posts of Aug. 14, 2005 [Oracle]; April 7, 2006 [GE Consumer Finance and FT Group]; April 30, 2006 #5 [Microsoft]; Aug. 2, 2006 [Sears]; and June 16, 2006 [Bank of Ireland]). In my consulting, I have worked with four other law departments that have drawn on the skills and disciplines of their procurement colleagues.
Other comments on this blog have explored the joint efforts of law and procurement (See my posts of Feb. 20, 2005; Aug. 20, 2006 on a “purchasing” perspective; and March 13, 2007 regarding some survey data.).