It’s January, the start of a new year, and a time to say good-bye to 2009. But if you’re like most law department managers looking at 2010, perhaps ”happy” is a stretch goal. “Sane” would be nice, and really goes without saying, so I apologize for even bringing it up. How about “predictable” - predictability in the nature, timing and level of legal fees and expenses? (Read More)
January 4, 2010
December 11, 2009
Advantage: Smaller Companies
A colleague recently asked me what middle market companies can do to streamline their internal legal function. By ”middle market”, I mean $1 - $5 billion companies, which typically spend about .5% of their sales on total legal costs. Generally, companies in this range have anywhere from 5 to 30 attorneys and assistants. Of course, these relationships will vary by industry and, for that matter, for each specific company. For those of you in this position, you’re in the driver’s seat. (Read More)
December 9, 2009
In This Buyer’s Market, Focusing only on Cost Reduction is Short-Sighted
I participated in a panel discussion during Corporate Counsel’s Controlling Legal Costs conference last week. A colleague made the point that slashing costs with no holistic or cohesive plan may well do more harm than good. Carol Ann Petren is Executive Vice President and General Counsel for CIGNA, and she went on to point out that aggressive staffing cuts can increase outside counsel fees and expenses or result in higher liability exposure. I could not agree more. Focusing on cost minimization rather than performance optimization is a recipe for disaster. (Read More)
September 12, 2009
Your business should be exciting. Your processes? Not so much.
How did it come to this? Managing your legal department and controlling legal costs has all of the excitement of the new NFL season, but with all of the satisfaction of filing your taxes with an amount due. (Read More)
May 6, 2009
Slashing legal costs at the expense of quality?
As the article below indicates, some companies are slashing legal costs by hiring firms with lower rates. But does that mean that the quality of legal representation is still there? With LegalEye ’s (TM) dashboarding and reporting capabilities, you no longer have to take that chance.