Purchasing Outside Legal Counsel Services: Part 1

As a part of my role at LawyerlinQ, I've had discussions with nearly a hundred GCs over the past few months regarding the procurement of attorney services. In this blog series, I'll share my insights, or "learnings" as we call them internally. This first one focuses on 'fixed pricing'. While everyone claims that fixed pricing is challenging, it turns out to be easier than you think. Here are three tips:

1. "Don't be shy, just ask": Most law firms still operate on an ‘hours x rate’ basis. This is caused by the fact that the majority of GCs don't actually ask for fixed pricing. In practice, it turns out that when you explicitly ask for it, law firms readily offer it.
   

2. Leverage the expertise of the specialists: Your law firms should have much more experience than you in the type of work you wish to procure (if not, I doubt if you selected the right firm). Use that experience and let them ask all the necessary questions to clarify the exact scope of the work.
   

3. Organize competition: Law firms can more easily offer a (lower) fixed price for work in which they excel and for which their organisation is well-suited (and for which they have legal tech in place). By organizing a competitive process, you can quickly and fairly determine which firm has the best expertise and internal setup for your project. This increases the chances of successfully using fixed pricing.

Would you like to apply fixed prices more often? It doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. We’re here to help you.