President & COO of Paragon Legal delivering the best flex talent for your legal team | super annoying about playing pickleball | big fan of dogs | purposefully will have typos in my posts
“No one ever got fired for hiring [BigLaw]”. Well, sometimes they should 🤯🤯 As a leader of a legal department, you are responsible for your budget. Full stop. It is 100% your responsibility to get the highest value for every dollar of your already tight budget to accomplish the goals of the department. That’s the job. The same way it’s the job for sales, for marketing, for engineering, for the CEO etc, etc. So, if you’re throwing away your already-too-small budget on the heavy horsepower of BigLaw for work that does not justify the cost and you do not receive the value, then, maybe the age-old adage of “no one ever gets fired for hiring [BigLaw]” should go out the window. Forward-thinking & business-minded GCs are managing their budgets like the rest of the business. Rightsource the work, leverage all of the tools in the toolbox. The choice is no longer just in-house or law firm to get the work done. And those who are stuck believing biglaw or in-house is the only way, well, let’s talk. The only way to get started is to get started. #legalops #legalinnovation #legalservices
Jonathan Fennell
9mo
I know of a company that retained a large firm to handle a relatively simple matter involving a dispute with a municipality regarding a small property tax assessment on a group home. The local contact at the firm handed it to a litigator at one of the larger offices, who fought, lost, appealed, and lost and racked up a sizable bill in the process - likely 20x the original amount in controversy. If I recall correctly, the C-suite took no responsibility for the debacle, taking the position that it "hired the best" (but got its butt kicked by a small firm that billed its clients a fraction). Sometimes big is better. But many times it's just bigger and more expensive.
My favorite are the mega contracts I’ve had where every department utilizes a different software (often four or more different versions that all do relatively the same thing or could be combined in some way) and all their information is siloed to ensure the departments “sustainability” (I.e. the Board won’t find out they are paying six c-suite execs to do what two could do easily). Absolutely a joy to sort through. Ten out of ten.
Joel Roy
9mo
You seem to miss that, for many corps, external and internal budgets are not allocated the same... Headcount is also is a different ball game altogether, but that just might be when you come in...
Blaine R. Dart
9mo
Some of the best lawyers I have ever worked with came from big law; but others that are equally talented came from small firms. Find the right lawyer wherever it might be and build your budget accordingly. I understand that adage around big law for the largest, board facing matters, but I believe some of the most dedicated, hungry, skilled lawyers I have ever worked with came from medium or smaller firms.
Jason Winmill
9mo
A++ Jessica Markowitz.
Attorney | In-house Legal Department Consultant at Thomson Reuters
9mo"Well sometimes they should." Ohhh boy :) I agree. That said, I can certainly understand the argument (and I get it daily when discussing technologies to help in-house attorneys be more efficient and do more in-house) of "I have the budget, so why wouldn't I use it?" I mean, I assume that attorney wouldn't ever use that argument to the CEO or board, but to many attorneys, why change your sourcing or take on more in-house when they can simply hire Biglaw and call it a day. Honestly, tough Q for me to answer aside from the fact that they aren't being great stewards of the company's moneys.