Layoffs, reduced expenses, elimination of out-of-state CLE, removal of “perks” like free office coffee and water: Invariably, cost reductions feel like a punishment.
Most articles about the cost-cutting initiatives of in-house legal departments focus on these punishments and the hardships facing in-house lawyers in these recessionary times. While the cost-cutting initiatives are portrayed as necessary short-term solutions to economic difficulties, the implication is that neither the lawyers nor the corporations are well served by them in the long run. The articles rarely discuss the opportunities that being cost-conscious can create.
