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55% of companies in the data pool have 10 firms or fewer accounting for at least 80% of outside counsel fees (based on trailing 12-months ending June 30, 2015).
Even as the largest law firms raise billing rates, corporate counsel continues to consolidate law firm panels.
The most recent CounselLink® Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report found “55% of companies in the data pool have 10 firms or fewer accounting for at least 80% of outside counsel fees.” As the infographic, and 2015 Mid-Year Scorecard, nearby show, law firm consolidation is up 5% over 2014.
Consolidating more work with fewer firms is one strategy to manage legal spend. It’s a means to strengthen law firm relationships with what a given corporate legal department believes to be best performing firms. It also provides the ability to negotiate better rates based on volume.
Law firm consolidation has also one of the key legal spend trends the CounselLink team has monitored closely since the report first debuted in 2013.
There are of course other strategies for managing legal costs and these tend to be dependent on the unique needs of a company and the industry it serves. For example, a legal operations manager for a large scientific manufacturing company, once expressed in a user conference setting, a predilection for spreading legal projects out across an array law firms.
The scorecard embedded below is based on the latest report published earlier this week, and provides a look at several legal industry benchmarks. These benchmarks are part of six key metrics the ELM Trends Report examines on a semiannual basis.
To walk through the data and what it means for corporate legal departments, the report’s principal author Kris Satkunas will host a complimentary 45-minute webinar. The webinar titled, 2015 Mid-Year Trends Report: 6 Key Metrics, will be broadcast live on the web on Wednesday, October 28, 2105 beginning at 1:00 p.m.
The infographic and scorecard stemming from the most recent report is this week’s Friday Share.
(click here or image for higher resolution)
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