In-House Counsel

A warped cost driver: outside counsel who put in long hours (big bills) and thereby get referrals

By Rees Morrison

An off-hand remark by a partner, quoted in Of Counsel, Vol. 27, Feb. 2008 at 3, snapped me to attention. Kevin Newsom was describing his having been hired to handle a case for the Governor of Alabama that will be argued in the Supreme Court. Newsom remarked: "The best marketing I can do is to work myself silly on that case and do as good a job as I can."

Aha! Big bills = big success = big book of business! One of the perverse drivers of legal costs is exactly this: If you log hour after hour and spend wads of your client's money and do well, another client may hire you. The incentive is to work yourself silly ? bill huge numbers of hours ? and reap the rewards of marketing by referral. The first client, the one with the humongous bill, pays for your marketing.

Full post as published by Law Department Management on February 21, 2008 (boomark / email).