Law Depts Balking At Firm Associate Fees

Legal departments are preferring more experienced law firm attorneys over associates, apparently concluding that doing so represents a cost-savings once all the numbers are crunched. Billings for first year lawyers was 3.4 percent of all billings five years ago, according to the “Real Rate” report from Datacert | TyMetrix. This year it was down to 1.2 percent. A New York Times article looks at this and a number of other billing and law firm retention trends. Among other significant findings: Proportionally more work is indeed staying inside the legal department, as worldwide the total legal spend was up two percent last year, while spending on outside law firms actually fell two 2 percent.