Our guest this week is Kristina Satkunas, Director of Analytic Consulting at LexisNexis. Kristina discusses the recently released LexisNexis CounselLink Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report for 2023. This annual report provides insights and benchmarks on key metrics related to corporate legal spending and outside counsel relationships.
The 2023 report found that law firm hourly rates increased 4.5% over the past year, the highest year-over-year increase in the 10 years LexisNexis has published the report. While rate increases are not surprising, the magnitude is noteworthy. Kris attributes the largest drivers of the increase to economic factors like inflation as well as lower demand for certain types of legal work. However, average blended rates (the rates charged for entire matters rather than individual timekeepers) remained relatively flat. This suggests in-house counsel are mitigating rate hikes by changing the mix of firms, timekeepers, and types of timekeepers working their matters.
The report also found the ongoing trend of consolidation to fewer outside firms continues, with 61% of companies using 10 or fewer firms for 80% of their legal spending. Kristina expects this trend to remain relatively stable but notes there are benefits to using both a smaller number of firms (e.g. better rates, stronger relationships) and a larger number of firms (e.g. subject matter expertise, competitive rates). She recommends companies determine when to use large firms versus smaller or midsize firms based on factors like matter complexity, risk profile, and cost.
Alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) have not gained significant traction according to the report, remaining at about 12% of matters. Kristina is an advocate for wider AFA adoption and believes companies need to ask for and consider AFA proposals, especially for appropriate matters. AFAs can help buffer rising hourly rates. She acknowledges AFAs require effort to evaluate and implement but thinks legal operations teams and outside counsel should work together using data and analytics to develop reasonable AFA proposals.
The report provides new data on international lawyer rates in 22 countries. Rates differ significantly between countries based on factors like a country's economy, political stability, and role in global trade and commerce. Many companies are leveraging international firms for regulatory, litigation, IP, and other legal needs outside the U.S. Benchmark data on rates in different countries provides helpful context, especially when engaging firms in new countries.
Kristina sees two significant changes on the horizon:
When asked what metric in-house and outside counsel should focus on, Kristina recommends using available data, whether from the survey or a company's own systems. Data is a "two-way street" that should be shared collaboratively to improve decision making.
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Transcript
LegalWeek 2024 Special Part Two: Mollie Nichols and Mark Noel from Redgrave Data
Legal Week 2024 Special Part One: Joey Seeber of Level Legal
Navigating the Future of Legal Tech with Caroline Hill
Projections for Legal Tech and Innovations in 2024 (TGIR Ep. 232)
Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges: Tackling Racial Bias in Law with LexisNexis Fellows 2023 (TGIR Ep. 231)
Pfeifer and Wellen Give an Inside Look at LexisNexis' AI Sprint (TGIR Ep. 230)
The Future of KM is Bright: DiDomenico, Miro, and Little Review the KM&I for Legal Conference (TGIR Ep. 229)
TGIR Ep. 228 - Cat Moon and Mark Williams Launch the New Vanderbilt AI Law Lab (VAILL)
vLex's Damien Riehl on Examining vLex's New Vincent AI
Colin Levy, Dorna Moini, and Ashley Carlisle on Herding Cats and Heralding Change: The Inside Scoop on the "Handbook of Legal Tech"
Jacqueline Schafer on Writing Briefs at the Speed of AI: How ClearBrief is Transforming Legal Drafting
Paulina Grnarova and Yannic Kilcher from DeepJudge.AI: Unlocking Institutional Knowledge: How AI is Transforming Legal Search (TGIR Ep. 224)
Breaking the Stigma: Fostering Wellbeing in the Legal Profession (TGIR Ep. 223)
Thomas Suh and Ken Block on How LegalMation is Revolutionizing Litigation Efficiency
Unleashing the Legal Monster Behind the Door - LexFusion's Christina Wojcik (TGIR Ep. 221)
Paxton.AI's Chau & Ulin: How AI Allows Legal Work to Soar to New Heights (TGIR Ep. 220)
LINKS, Citizen Coders & Auditing Shelfware: Insights from Harbor’s Kris Martin
Observing the Black Box: Transcend's Brandon Wiebe's Insights into Governing Emerging AI Systems
Fast, Smart, and Empathetic: How DISCO's Culture Drives Legal Tech Innovation (TGIR Ep. 217)
Deploying Cutting-Edge Legal AI: Travers Smith's Cautious, But Open-source Approach. (TGIR Ep. 216)
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