How do General Counsel choose law firms?
As a part of my role at LawyerlinQ, I’ve had discussions with over a hundred General Counsel (GCs) regarding the procurement of attorney services. In this blog series, I’ll share my learnings from these conversations. This third blog I will address how choosing a law firm usually goes for companies. It turns out that little to nothing has changed in that over the past few decades.
Relationship and reference
The majority of GC’s choose a law firm based on the personal relationship they have with the firm or the partner involved. If the firm already does or has done a lot for the firm, there is a good chance that this firm will be hired more often. Even more important than the firm itself is the partner who actually does or supervises the work. Most GCs have a strong preference to work with former colleagues or other acquaintances in their network. If the firm has a good reputation, that strongly contributes to the likelihood of choosing the firm.
The relationship, the personal click and previous cooperation generate trust, and in the legal industry, trust is seen as a good predictor of quality. Although people in various surveys do indicate that price is an important factor in choosing a law firm, in practice it appears that cost is secondary in most cases. This is even more true when corporate executives get involved in choosing the firm. Then trust in the firm is decisive and cost plays virtually no role.
In cases where there is no preferred firm in mind for a particular matter, for example because it concerns a specialist subject, names of potentially suitable firms are asked around within the company or network. The firm with the best references is then chosen. If they do the work properly, they earn a place on the list for next time.
Requesting from 3 firms
Many of the larger companies, under the influence of the procurement department, have implemented policies that require quotes from at least three firms for matters above a certain threshold. This often leads to very different offers that are difficult to compare. Partly for this reason, even in such cases, people often prefer the firm with which a good relationship exists.
Handle your resources more carefully
If you want to manage the procurement of attorney services more intelligently in your legal department, I would be happy to meet with you. From LawyerlinQ, we save time and costs for corporate legal departments by innovating the way they procure attorney services and interim lawyers. We do this with a minimum of hassle and without putting your existing relationships at stake.
