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Trend shows outside counsel being left outside as budget cuts increase

By Richard Binder

pDemonstrating a trend that has significant implications for law firms,span style=text-decoration: underline; /spana growing number of California companies are under pressure to control costs and handle more work in house, where they can come closer to paying wholesale rather than retail for legal services. According to a 2008 survey of chief legal officers, conducted by consulting firm Altman Weil, general counsels are planning to decrease their use of outside firms, which typically constitute the largest expense of any corporate legal department. Correspondingly, chief legal officers plan to increase law department staffing over the next 12 months, according to the survey, which was conducted this past May and June./ppSpecifically, the survey reports that 49 percent of legal departments plan to hire additional lawyers in the next year, up from the 40 percent who said they planned on new hiring in the last survey. At the same time, 26 percent of law departments will decrease their outside counsel, up significantly from 16 percent in last year#39;s survey. Only eight percent of CLOs plan to increase their use of outside counsel, down from 18 percent. Not surprisingly, CLOs cited cost control as their top concern over the next three to five years./ppa href=http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202426844722/aSee a href=http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202426643767these/a a href=http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202426844722stories/a./p

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).