This year, they may finally start to make good on their threats. For years, our readers have been telling us that they want to tear up the old model of doing business with their law firms. But year after year, in-house counsel hired the same firms, and paid them the same way. It may have taken the deepest recession since the 1930s to change that — at least the second part of it. And it’s forcing corporate legal departments to rethink the concept of legal services in general. So is it real, or is this yet another tease? Read about one of the central issues concerning law firms big and small, and their clients, worldwide.

Inside this special report: