Recent study finds that consolidating legal work into fewer law firms & using lesser billing associates adds to legal costs.
As reported in an Inside Counsel article, a study by a legal software company indicated that as companies consolidates legal work, rates at those firms tended to increase so that overall, the consolidated legal work tended to cost more, not less. The study also showed that matters staffed by newer associates tended to cost up to 20% more.
A big caveat here.
The study focused on corporate legal work. And as I indicated in a prior blog post, corporate attorneys are not always the best examples of how to control outside legal costs.
So, at first blush, I was inclined to write the findings of this study off as having no value for claims litigation managers. I was tempted to just view the study findings as another example of how corporate legal counsel can take two legitimate cost saving measures and work hard to make them not work.
Upon further review . . . Continue reading