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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
RAISE ALARM - Law firms may be poised to end 2020 on an unexpected high note, but for many in-house attorneys it’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. As a result, to some clients, watching their outside counsel dole out double bonuses to associates is not exactly the best look, especially when those bonuses are tied to billable hour targets. It’s like watching your mechanic pull up in a new Ferrari the day after he charged you five grand to replace your transmission. “What is catching the attention of in-house counsel seem to be providing additional incentives on top of current incentives. And some of this may be based on hourly billing,” Jason Winmill, a managing partner at Argopoint who advises corporate legal departments, told Law.com’s Andrew Maloney, adding, “In-house counsel looking at the [the bonus] situation may be a bit dismayed and disappointed to see that while they are often in a tough position, outside counsel seems to be spending resources on bonuses in a way that just doesn’t seem to be consistent with the current position of many in-house legal departments.”
