Called the GC Thought Leaders Experiment the heavy-hitting GCs will use the shared information to compare law firms in terms of performance, costs and whether expensive lawyers are comparitively actually worth the additional spend. Companies involved in the new scheme include MasterCard, PayPal, Panasonic North America, Sony Electronics, Flex, Petco, Keurig Green Mountain Inc, Rockwell Automation Inc and Avaya Inc.

Detailed data sharing

The data being shared is detailed and includes firm names, billing rates, billing arrangements, matter types, practice areas and relationship length with outside firms. The project is being run AdvanceLaw - a consultancy comprising of general counsel and invited law firms.