Keeping to budget and litigation costs always rank highly in the many concerns general counsel have – there is no shortage of examples of in-house counsel bemoaning the way their external advisers take advantage of their budgets. The principle complaints appear all too often: a failure to bill regularly or at all; a failure to estimate accurately or at all; and a failure to add value.
Legal teams at companies including ASDA and Chubb Insurance Company have complained about the failure of external advisers to deal sensibly with the simplest of commercial requirements: ‘How much will it cost and when do I have to pay?’
