General counsel have long been trimming their panels of law firms, with companies such as GM, Uber and Archer Daniels Midland Co. winnowing down the number of firms they work with in recent years. And the pandemic might have accelerated the trend.

During the pandemic, law firm clients weren’t going out to the market to test new firms during the lockdown, but continued to have needs and saw benefits of shrinking outside counsel lists, said Paul Schmidt, chair of Baker & Hostetler.