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Law Departments Cut Costs by Squeezing Law Firms, Freezing Staff Pay

Posted Nov 20, 2009, 09:30 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Companies are trying to cut their legal budgets, and it’s affecting in-house lawyers whose salaries are frozen and outside law firms asked to reduce rates and offer alternatives to hourly rates.

Alternative fees have been touted as the up-and-coming way to reduce outside legal costs. But law departments are trying another tack as well, by freezing or even cutting the hourly rates paid to outside counsel, according to a survey by the Hildebrandt legal consulting firm.

Forty-six percent of law departments surveyed said they have cut their hourly rates paid to outside counsel, or will reduce their rates, according to a press release (PDF). And 64 percent said they have implemented or will implement rate freezes. That’s… Continue reading...



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