Those Letters About Fee Increases Are Source of In-House Amusement
Law firms informing in-house counsel about planned fee increases aren’t being taken seriously, according to one corporate lawyer speaking at a conference last week.
Large law firms increased fees by an average of about 5 percent in January 2009, according to data released last week by the Hildebrandt Institute and Citi Private Bank at a forum attended by the ABA Journal. But corporations may not be willing to pay, if a comment by a corporate lawyer attending a different meeting is any indication.
Sandra Mulrain, division counsel for Georgia-Pacific, said her company is aggressively cutting outside counsel costs, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. “When we get letters from law firms saying how much they are going to increase their fees in 2009, everybody breaks out in laughter, because that is not happening,” she said.
That reaction was among some little-known aspects of corporate lawyering discussed at the Leadership Institute for Women of Color Attorneys in Law and Business held in Atlanta. Lawyers at the conference noted these differences and misperceptions about in-house practice, according to the Daily Report:
• Jobs aren’t necessarily “more lifestyle-friendly and 9-to-5,” according to Timothy Johnson, general attorney for labor and employment at AT&T Mobility. “The in-house environment is very fast-paced.”
• Employees expect in-house lawyers to have on-the-spot answers to legal questions. “The opportunity that you have in a law firm to say, ‘Let me research that and write you a memo’ is not there,” Johnson said.
• Corporate legal departments can’t devote resources to training the way law firms do. “Let’s not be fooled into thinking that in-house departments are training grounds. They are not,” Mulrain said.
Updated at 1:35 p.m. to include information on how high fees have increased.
