A new report from litigation technology provider Liquid Litigation Management (LLM) has uncovered simmering dissatisfaction amount in-house lawyers with the standard of service they are receiving from their outside lawyers. While budgetary pressures are forcing in-house legal teams to constantly find ways to do more with less, many in-house lawyers are not seeing the same level of discipline and efficiency from their law firm counterparts. ‘Talking about efficiency in the abstract isn’t enough,’ explains Procertas founder and former in-house lawyer Casey Flaherty. ‘Corporations want measurable efficiencies and tractable savings without compromising quality. Many law firms struggle to meet these mandates.’

Reconcilable differences

Around 41 per cent survey respondents said that their companies would take control of cost efficiency this year by allotting a larger than ever portion of their legal work to in-house lawyers, sidestepping law firms in the process. Liquid Litigation Management chief executive Cas Campaigne insists that the relationship between corporations and law firms can still be salvaged, if outside counsel would only get serious about efficiency. ‘[Both corporations and law firms] are heavily focused on cost-cutting and efficiency gains, but their priorities differ,’ he explains. The survey found that 64 per cent of law firms use four or more legal software systems, with 13 per cent reporting the use of more than nine. ‘If law firms and corporations can work together to figure out how to consolidate their technology and reduce some of these inefficiencies caused by the complexity of the systems they use, firms will be between equipped to meet the demands of their customers and corporations will save money.’

The full LLM report, entitled ‘The State of the Legal Industry,’ can be viewed here.