Chief legal officers at corporations across the country said they are bringing more work inside and increasing their staff and budgets to do so, according to a survey conducted by Altman Weil Inc., a Kennett Square, Pa.-based consultant to law firms and legal departments.
The study, which had 174 chief legal officer respondents, revealed the CLOs were focused on finding more cost-effective ways to operate, with 29 percent decreasing their use of outside counsel and 81 percent using some form of alternative fees in place of hourly rates to pay law firms.
At the same time, many of the CLOs said they are beefing up internal operations. The study said 63 percent of chief legal officers surveyed in September and October increased their internal budgets, 41 percent plan to hire new in-house lawyers over the next 12 months, and 32 percent expect to add more paralegals.
Downtown-based recruitment firm Carpenter Legal Search typically does 60 percent of its job searches for corporations and 40 percent for law firms but, so far this year, 85 percent of the lawyers it has placed are at corporations, said President Lori Carpenter. “Corporations who had been thinking about adding to their legal departments at the end of 2008 put things on hold, and, after the first quarter of 2010, they’re back in the throes,” she said.
Read More:
Altman Weil survey says more corporate legal work going in-house - by Patty Tascarella, Pittsburgh Business Times