No one would choose to overpay for any service, ever.  And so, it would follow that now, especially, is not the right time to for law firms to overpay for their support services. In the face of a historic inflationary economy, law firms should be paying attention to expenses. The good news is, there’s some usual suspects that, given some attention, can gain firms substantial savings—and legal research is one of the biggest.

Notwithstanding the inflationary economy, overhead expenses have been on the rise in law firms before 2022. In fact, 2021 saw the largest increase in overhead and direct expenses law firms have experienced, according to the 2022 Georgetown Law/Peer Monitor State of the Legal Market. While associate compensation and recruitment was the number one driver of this increase, the number three cause was library services.