Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 43 Litigation employment/labour mergers & Acquisitions Intellectual property real estate Tax regulatory matters Securities/corporate finance General corporate work (contracts, etc.) class action Immigration U.S.-cross border IT (contracts, licensing etc.) environmental Privacy legislation risk mitigation Advertising/marketing other: What areas of practice do you contract out to firms the most? Is the volume of legal work carried out by your department and external counsel combined likely to grow 2015? If the volume of work is projected to grow, to what do you attribute the growth? Yes 64.6 % No 35.4 % 72% Company is in growth mode 26% One-time project 15% Company made acquisition How did your legal department manage costs this year? 69.85% 46.18% 27.86% 24.43% 23.28% 21.37% 21.37% 20.99% 18.32% 11.83% 11.45% 11.45% 9.16% 6.11% 5.73% 4.20% 2.29% 8.40% service providers to take the initiative to bring innovative billing solutions to the table when negotiating fees. "We employ a range of billing models, depending upon the subject matter of the legal work. We are currently 'test-driving' new billing models to see how they work for us, and our external legal service providers are keen to participate with us in those tests." As well as combining alternative fees with "rigorous project management at every step," Silversides says York has cho- sen similar, fairly routine file matters, and are running each file on a different fee arrangement, to see which arrangement might be best for those types of files. She says the law firms it works with are looking for new and inventive solutions to bring down the cost of their existing busi- ness models, creating efficiencies such as outsourcing legal research and project planning from a legal cost perspective. "In the end, the law firms can pass on the sav- ings to their clients and thereby retain the clients," she says. iS iT ABouT THe lAwYeR oR THe FiRM? This year's Corporate Counsel Survey also asked in-house counsel to indicate how they choose their external law firms. The majority, at 75.7 per cent, said they choose based on specific lawyers, while 72.4 per cent base their choice on practice exper- tise, followed by law firm reputation at 33.8 per cent. While some noted they choose based on parameters set in RFPs, one survey respondent summed it up this way: "I choose the lawyer, the firm is immaterial." Some of the comments received on this question emphasized the importance of long-term relationships and some indi- cated the formula looks a bit like this: "Lawyers with specific skill sets, strong relationships, commitment to innovative service delivery, and support of in-house counsel." However, others also noted cost was a significant factor overall, with one respon- dent saying: "All of the above also has to be balanced by cost." While another said: "You can get excellent lawyers in regional firms at reasonable rates." Gutelius ranks the person ahead of the firm, but adds: "firms do matter. I would say the individual lawyer is a big driver Salary cuts 1% No strategy required/ no change 41% more work brought inside 43% New fee agreement with outside counsel 28% Sent legal work offshore/hired contract lawyers 6% reduced workforce 4%

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