First, the good news: Legal departments are getting better at cleaning up their data around outside legal spend. But even the best organized billing data in the world can’t drive more alternative fee arrangements if general counsel don’t have the desire to push their law firms away from the billable hour.

According to stats that were originally shared in the Blickstein Group 2020 Law Department Legal Operations Survey—and also republished as a part of this month’s Deloitte Value Based Pricing Report—40% of law firms surveyed said that legal departments were more comfortable with the billable hour. Meanwhile, 60% of legal department respondents said the same about law firms.