Jackson Lewis Caps Fees in Exchange for All of Pfizer’s Employment Work
Pfizer Inc. has dubbed its law firm management effort P3, for Pfizer Partnering Program. It’s a bit of a misnomer, however, since the program involves the whittling away of law firm partners.
The company now uses only 39 outside firms for U.S. litigation, down from 200 before the company instituted P3 in January 2006, Corporate Counsel reports. Most startling, however, is the number of firms cut from—and remaining to handle—employment matters.
At one point there were 50 firms handling work in this area. Today the last firm standing is Jackson Lewis, which will handle most of Pfizer’s labor and employment work for 2008 and 2009, the story says. In return the firm has agreed to an annual cap on its fees.
Pfizer isn’t the first company to reduce its number of outside counsel and won’t be the last, the story says. Honeywell International Inc. has chosen just one firm—Lovells—for most of its European work while Brady Corp. has handed most of its European work to Eversheds.
