Collective Bargaining for Legal Fees?

[Editor's Note: I'd like to hear readers' thoughts on the following news article excerpt. Please e-mail your remarks to [email protected].]

For almost a year, lawyers from eight of the largest corporations in the country have been meeting and exchanging information. The group, which first came together last fall, includes in-house attorneys from Cisco Systems Inc., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., FMC Technologies Inc., General Motors Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Together they oversee a collective annual legal budget exceeding $1 billion.

According to Thomas Sager, associate general counsel at DuPont, the coalition is “an attempt to level the playing field.” Pointing to the size of recent law firm mergers, he says: “The bigger they get, the more insensitive they might become to clients' needs.” Microsoft deputy GC Kevin Harrang adds that corporate counsel are facing more pressure at their companies to keep costs down.

Sager says that he and his fellow coalition members have “been trying to foment change for the last ten to 12 years. We realized about a year ago that if we act more collectively, we can leverage our experience to drive increased efficiency.”

Cisco GC Mark Chandler stresses that the group isn't just focused on getting lower fees. “We're trying to get firms to think about providing services more efficiently,” he says. As part of the group's effort, Sager traveled to India in March to research outsourcing opportunities for legal work.

The group is also talking about banding together to make collective purchases of legal services. In May, the coalition took its first step toward a collective purchase when it invited roughly 20 law firms, plus some other companies, to bid to create an online system that human resources departments could use to get automated answers to routine questions.

[Editor's Note: I'd like to hear readers' thoughts on the following news article excerpt. Please e-mail your remarks to [email protected].]

For almost a year, lawyers from eight of the largest corporations in the country have been meeting and exchanging information. The group, which first came together last fall, includes in-house attorneys from Cisco Systems Inc., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., FMC Technologies Inc., General Motors Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Together they oversee a collective annual legal budget exceeding $1 billion.

According to Thomas Sager, associate general counsel at DuPont, the coalition is “an attempt to level the playing field.” Pointing to the size of recent law firm mergers, he says: “The bigger they get, the more insensitive they might become to clients' needs.” Microsoft deputy GC Kevin Harrang adds that corporate counsel are facing more pressure at their companies to keep costs down.

Sager says that he and his fellow coalition members have “been trying to foment change for the last ten to 12 years. We realized about a year ago that if we act more collectively, we can leverage our experience to drive increased efficiency.”

Cisco GC Mark Chandler stresses that the group isn't just focused on getting lower fees. “We're trying to get firms to think about providing services more efficiently,” he says. As part of the group's effort, Sager traveled to India in March to research outsourcing opportunities for legal work.

The group is also talking about banding together to make collective purchases of legal services. In May, the coalition took its first step toward a collective purchase when it invited roughly 20 law firms, plus some other companies, to bid to create an online system that human resources departments could use to get automated answers to routine questions.