I don’t pay much attention to pronouncements made by general counsel about cost and value. It’s a maxim that has generally stood me in good stead at Legal Week. If you did take those public statements at face value, you would have concluded a lot of things: rates are coming down; clients are instructing mid-tiers for much of their work; sophisticated clients are now experts in managing costs and measuring value. The awkward point is that these trends are either not happening in the field or, at least, their prominence is greatly exaggerated.
So the most accurate indicator of clients’ priorities – the one that never steers me wrong – is the same as it was years ago: our annual table of financial results of the largest UK law firms. This measures the outcomes of thousands of buying decisions made by clients every year. If demand is flat-lining, it’s there. If clients are getting tough on rates in certain areas, that is where you will see the result.
