In-House Paralegals

If your law department hires outside counsel, chances are some of the law firms you use offer “extranet” access on their websites so you can view case files, billing status and other related information pertaining to the work the firms are goind for your company. In fact, ten years ago, Professor Richard Susskind (whom some regard as the most important thinker [...]

How surprising is this?  Law firm attorneys are trained to practice law.  Under the economic model most firms follow, the vast majority of outside counsel are very motivated to generate billable hours.   Good for the firms.  Not so good for corporate clients.  Your response probably is, “So, hello . . .  what else is new?” With pressure [...]

Many law department leaders complain that outside counsel will submit a budget at the outset of a matter or case, but then not stick to it.  Equally troublesome, law firm attorneys will frequently become aware of circumstances that will drive costs out of line with original projections and not inform their clients about such developments.   To say [...]

        Examining the Law Firms You Use   The August 2010 issue of InsideCousnel features an article reporting the results of the magazine’s 20th Annual Survey of General Counsel in which more than 550 senior legal executives were interviewed on the current state of their legal departments and relationships with outside counsel. It’s interest — [...]

If your legal team invests a lot of time and effort negotiating lower rates from the law firms you hire to do work for your company, you may be fostering  exactly the opposite result you’re hoping for. As you may know, the leaders at DuPont Legal pay a lot of attention to the return on investment the company is getting [...]