CIO Canada’s ‘Quick Hits’ to Trim Legal Costs

A view from outside the legal industry, IT World Canada’s CIO Canada blog offers a couple of “Quick Hits” to help technology companies trim their legal costs. That section clipped here:

Legal Services: 1) Does your policy or are your relationships with Law Firms segregated according to the type of work and risk? Mid-tier firms charge up to 25% less than the large, national firms 2) Do you negotiate fixed professional fees for routine work? 3) Do you negotiate and cap administrative and incidental rates and fees?

Some interesting insights, on fixed fees, commoditization, market prices for routine work, and my personal favourite ‘administrative fees’. The Biglaw fees attack in #1 may have a few holes, in that it depends on the type of work retained, the firm relationship, ‘getting what you pay for’, etc. But this definitely offers a glimpse into client considerations, at least from the blog/magazine’s target audience of mid-size technology companies.

An industry magazine offering tips isn’t in the same class as the ACC Value Challenge, but does reflect on companies with enough legal work to be strategic about who and how the work is handled.