Law Firm Benchmarking Report Shows that Clients Expect to Receive More E-Discovery Counsel

Global News

14
Aug
2018

Editor

Exterro^® Inc., the preferred provider of software specifically designed for in-house legal and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations, today announced the release of the 2018 Law Firm Benchmarking Report. Based on a survey conducted with 103 law firm staff, the report highlights how in-house legal departments should expect and request more collaborative e-discovery counseling from law firms.

In addition, the 2018 Law Firm Benchmarking Report shows that:

• Law firm clients increasingly request customized strategies for solving e-discovery challenges, with 77% of them asking for reduced rates or alternative billing arrangements.
• 60% of law firms are planning on increasing e-discovery services to clients over the next 2 years based on increasing demand for these services.
• Most law firms are still using informal discussions to meet client needs for project management, with only 44% of respondents using formal review and strategy discussions with clients.
• In-house legal departments can and should implement multiple strategies to reduce e-discovery costs when working with law firms. According to survey respondents, the best ways are clearly defined case goals and strategy (70%) and implementing defensible preservation and collection processes (64%).

“As has been the case every year we’ve conducted this survey, the pressure continues to grow on law firms to re-think how they counsel their clients on e-discovery and other litigation matters. In this year’s Law Firm Benchmarking Report, we wanted to present the view from the in-house legal perspective on what they can and should expect from their law firms when it comes to e-discovery counseling,” said Bill Piwonka, Exterro CMO. “The results were telling – in house legal departments absolutely should expect more from their outside counsel, and the law firm leaders are stepping up to this challenge.”

Exterro's third annual Law Firm Benchmarking Report is based on a survey conducted in July 2018 with 103 law firm respondents including more than 27% from law firms of over 500 attorneys.