In a March 16, 2006 article written by Janet L. Conley for GC SOUTH, entitled "GCs 'Can't Get No Satisfaction' From Outside Counsel", she reports on a BTI study that found that companies are exceedingly dissatisfied with their outside law firms. She quotes Marcie Borgal, senior strategic analyst at BTI Consulting Group--"dissatisfaction is so great that 52 percent of companies changed their primary law firm in the past two years."
BTI conducted telephone interviews with 200 GCs, deputy and associate GCs at Fortune 1000 companies. This means, according to BTI, that 104 companies fired their primary law firms in the last couple years.
If true, that's a staggering statistic. However, I have a different set of experiences that suggest this number is high. I faciliate Martindale-Hubbell/Lexis Nexis sponsored Counsel to Counsel forums in the U.S. and in a handful of countries around the world, and have since 2000. These are interactive "best practices" discussions of corporate counsel and up to 6 law firm lawyers. For information, visit http://www.c2c.martindale.com
The Counsel to Counsel participants are candid and forthcoming. They tell the occasional story about a bad law firm experience, but by and large, they are delighted with the guidance they are getting, and often brag about their counsel to the others at the table.
In a recent interview I conducted with Rees Morrison, senior consultant at Hildebrandt International, about convergence, he said that his general counsel / legal department clients are quite happy with their top law firms. In the article I wrote about this interview, Rees said:
"The loyalty of general counsel to the firms they select is quite high, because nobody wants to use new firms all the time. Law firms don’t like to hear this, but there’s just not that much business in play. In-house lawyers tend to stick with the preferred counsel, perhaps due to familiarity or the leverage the firms have, or simply being comfortable with the people and quality of their work. Nearly all law departments stick with the partners they like."
Law firms can certainly be more mindful of the service they provide their most important clients. But I don't think the Rolling Stones song about "no satisfaction" is true--at least in my experience.
(NOTE: The interview with Rees Morrison will appear in the May 2006 issue of STRATEGIES: The Journal of Legal Marketing, published by the Legal Marketing Association, and also on my Web site at http://www.deborahmcmurray.com Comments
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