That 59% of large legal teams are under pressure to reduce costs, reported by the Association of Corporate Counsel in Australia, is hardly a surprise.1
With the End of the Financial Year almost on us, many in-house legal teams will have had to struggle to justify their end-of-year position and negotiate budgets for FY’17. All that is predictable about the final agreed legal budget is that it won’t be accurate, and external legal costs are the most likely culprit.
“In-house legal teams are under heightened pressure to demonstrate greater value to their organisation.”
When it comes to outsourced legal, the big question is, what can be done to improve how external legal spend is managed?
There is an opportunity for legal teams to review the ways that things are done and perhaps re-think new ways of doing things so that they can stretch their budget further.
Implementing simple processes and practices will increase the discipline and rigour when it comes to managing external legal work, and this will assist in-house counsel:
- Justify external legal spend based on metrics and procurement principles
- Gain greater visibility over current and future legal spend
- Take control of their legal budget
Download our Guide to Managing Legal Costs for more tips and ideas on how to manage your legal costs and stretch your budget further this year.
1Association of Corporate Counsel Australia. (2015). Retrieved 21 January 2016, from https://acla.acc.com/newsletters/id/2040
