Smaller Law Firms Get More Big-Company Work, Survey Finds
The nation’s largest companies are increasingly turning to smaller and midsized law firms to perform legal work for less money.
The survey of 550 large companies found that 38 percent hired law firms last year outside of the nation’s top 200 law firms, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2007, only 25 percent of the companies surveyed hired law firms outside the top 200, according to the survey by BTI Consulting Group.
The story identifies a couple companies that hired smaller law firms:
• AutoNation hired seven-lawyer South Florida law firm Angelo & Banta to do legal work for a move across town in Fort Lauderdale.
• Georgia Pacific Corp. gave a chunk of commercial litigation work to Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin, a Houston-based law firm with about 100 lawyers.
Another company, SunGuard Data Systems, stuck with two larger Philadelphia law firms that agreed to offer alternative fee arrangements: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Blank Rome, according to the story.
Blank Rome managing partner Carl Buchholz told the newspaper that SunGuard isn’t the only client being charged alternative fees. “We’ve been very proactive about partnering with our clients to make creative flexible agreements,” he said.
Prior coverage:
ABA Journal: “How Midsized Firms Can Land Big Clients”
