Given the vast sums spent on corporate legal services, it is surprising that not much has been written about how corporate consumers procure and consume legal resources. With hourly rates approaching $800 in some Metropolitan areas, the topic should be especially compelling for the smaller private company (revenues between $10 million and $100 million) that lacks the resources or doesn’t have the need to hire in-house attorneys. We see a large number of companies, including some that are public, getting poor value in return for paying large fees. By that, I don’t mean that the services are poor, though sometimes they may be – they may in fact be of high quality and result in good work product. But the value added to the company’s operation may be lacking, given the cost and nature of the services provided by the traditional hourly rate law firm.

In the coming months, I will be posting a number of entries about the relationship between fast-growing or mid-sized companies and their legal service providers, the expanding options available to them and the values they can achieve by a more efficient deployment of legal resources. The entries will speak to all aspects of a corporate lawyer’s role in serving the client to enhance value, including the appropriate perspective the lawyer should have to provide effective guidance, the lawyer’s integration with the culture of the business, the business’ processes with which the lawyer should be involved and the substantial role the attorney plays in mitigating risk.