The margin-slicing pursuit of celebrity corporate clients

Big name clients, with their tens of millions of dollars spent on outside counsel, irresistibly lure large law firms. The moths want very much to fly where there are searing burn rates.

The celebrity corporations, however, want their candles to burn a long time and not be wasted. In fact, they trim the wick of law firm margins. They negotiate discounts, free services, flat fees, budgets and other cost reducers.

So the legal industry watches this smoldering dance of prestigious law firms with their expensive rates matching wits with cost-cutting, accomplished major law departments. It is a bonfire of the vanities.