Anglo-Saxon global corporations have been running law firm panels for the best part of a generation. They started out big – with many multinationals compiling groups of more than 100 firms in an attempt to keep the private practice profession on its toes. But the advent of hard economic times triggered a rethink by many in-house heads of legal – trimming panel membership would give the survivors more work and provide the corporation with leverage to negotiation on fee deals. So much for the Anglo-Saxons – European corporations have historically been far less enthusiastic about panels and have only relatively recently got into the game. Our survey of general counsel illustrates that practice is fairly evenly divided.