More U. S. companies than anywhere else complain that their law firms are rarely in contact to check customer satisfaction, according to the GC Excellence survey.
The research revealed that 53 percent of general counsel in the United States said that their law firms were not in touch over feedback compared with 33 percent globally. The GC Excellence report was conducted in association with law firm network TerraLex. Source Bloomberg
While lawyers “were making more effort to understand business needs and communicate better with their clients,” 127 chief legal officers said that law firms could still offer better deals on fees, reduce costs through outsourcing and rely more on technology.
Regulation and compliance top the list of general counsel concerns, according to the report. The other areas that vex top legal officers include “creating value for their companies” followed by “data protection, security and cyber issues.”
The new findings are contained in “The General Counsel Excellence Report 2015,” a survey sponsored by TerraLex, a referral network of more than 150 law firms in 100 countries, and conducted by the Global Legal Post, a London-based legal digest.
Of those surveyed, 23 worked at companies that were either headquartered or based in the U.S. Those working in the U.S. were similar to their global counterparts on many topics, including basing hiring decisions on experience and price. But U.S. GCs tend to put a higher level of importance on speed rather than relationship building, which is more important to GCs outside of the United States.
According to the survey, approximately 64 percent of general counsel said that communications with external law firms have improved, but that figure dropped to 57 percent when asked whether firms understood the business needs of the general counsel.
About half of the survey’s respondents said they use only one to five domestic law firms in their home jurisdictions, while 31 percent said they use six to 10 law firms in their home countries. Only 11 percent said they use 11 to 20 firms, while 8 percent use 21 or more firms.
And if it seems like the pressure to explore alternative fee arrangements is steadily increasing, that’s because 60 percent of the respondents said they routinely ask law firms for alternatives to traditional hourly billing. Last year, only 47 percent sought alternative arrangements.
