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Law firms are reluctant to help clients control costs and move away from hourly billing, according to in-house counsel research.
The CMS Cameron McKenna report, How much? Over Priced, Over Paid & Over Budget?, shows that in-house counsel want service providers to move away from charging hourly rates and adopt “concept billing” instead. Respondents said that hourly billing offers little reflection of value and provides little incentive to be cost effective.
Richard Price, senior partner at CMS Cameron McKenna, says: “The demand for better response from their legal advisers seems to far outweigh tangible evidence of improvement across the sector.
“Disappointingly, only 40% of interviewees felt that law firms have responded proactively in helping them to reduce costs.”
Respondents were also critical of firms’ project management skills. One in-house lawyer said: “It’s madness that you’re paying £90,000 for a newly qualified. It’s madness that lawyers have to work 2,000 billable hours.
On the bigger stuff they rate you for a job but what I get from them is their cost drivers and need for good people.”
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