Benchmark and Reduce Your Legal Fees Without
Sacrificing Quality Learn how to negotiate lower fees with outside counsel, create stronger billing and staffing guidelines, establish strategic alternative fee arrangements, and set up and evaluate a panel of lawyers.
How do leading general counsel respond?
An analysis of U.S. law firm billings to corporate clients, using actual invoices from 2007 to 2011, has revealed some surprising behaviors. How do leading general counsel respond?
» Learn more about the legal fee analysis.
About Real Rate Report
Several important trends emerged from our analysis of U.S. law firm billings to corporate clients:
Law Firm Rate Increases Are Accelerating:
Law firm rate increases did not stop during the recession, and the average company is now paying rate increases that are back in the pre-recession range (and accelerating).
Struggling to Control Costs:
General counsel are struggling to counter rising costs at the top end of the market - the number of lawyers billing more than $1000 an hour has almost doubled since 2009, and the largest firms in the most expensive markets are exerting their pricing power.
Uneven Results:
The vast majority of lawyers charge different rates to different clients each year. These differences are substantial (the median difference exceeds 15%, with many far higher), and suggest that general counsel are achieving very different outcomes from their cost control efforts.
Bright Spots:
Some general counsel are finding high quality advice for reasonable cost by looking outside large markets and using law firms of different sizes. These measures tend to dictate price much more than experience.
CEB's General Counsel Roundtable and Corporate Legal Exchange will work with you to benchmark and reduce your legal fees.
Benchmark Cost-Control Efforts
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Compare your U.S. law firm Rates and matter staffing with Real Rate Report benchmarking data derived from over $7 billion of invoices.
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See how your outside spending in each practice area compares with peer companies with our benchmarking data.
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Evaluate the performance of your existing firms using criteria developed by leading general counsel.
Build a Cost-Effective Roster of Firms and Vendors
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Refine the size and composition of your law firm roster using our research on the most effective panel structures.
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Use data from the Real Rate Report to explore the cost saving potential of moving work to firms of alternative sizes and locations.
Refine Your Matter Management Approach
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Discuss feedback on your litigation management approach, including a review of your billing and staffing guidelines, budgeting templates, and early case assessment process, with your Executive Advisor.
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View evaluations of e-billing and matter management technologies by peer general counsel and learn about the system capabilities that are key to success.
Re-examine Billing Arrangements
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Read our analysis of the most effective alternative fee arrangements, based on feedback from general counsel on cost and quality impact.
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Uses tips, processes, and templates from peer legal departments to implement alternative fees at your company.
Overview of Legal Fees Data Analyzed
by CEB and TyMetrix
CEB has partnered with TyMetrix to produce the U.S. legal industry's unprecedented analysis of $7.6 billion in U.S. law firm billings to corporate clients. The Real Rate Report™ is a unique look at the real rates that corporations are paying for work done by their law firms. This analysis is the starting point of the outside counsel management support provided by CEB.
In the News
- Biggest Lawyers Grab Fee Bounty
Wall Street Journal, April 15rd, 2012 - Rich Lawyers are Getting Richer Faster
ThomsonReuters, April 16h, 2012 - Latest Billing Rate Report: The Rich Keep Getting Richer
Corporate Counsel, April 17th, 2012 - Lawyers Face Widening Pay Gap
Huffington Post, April 16th 2012
Contact Us
Contact us for supporting research, to learn more about the Real Rate Report or CEB's outside counsel management support.
phone: +1-866-913-8103
