Legal spending continues to grow at ludicrous speed, and the pressure to rein it in is increasing especially as economic conditions continue to cool. Legal was leading the charge in AI way before ChatGPT hit the scene with technology to mine more minutes to bill from emails amongst other dastardly inventions. When 39% of clients are still ‘always’ or ‘often’ surprised by the size of law firm invoices and 81% indicate some legal matters are initiated “without their knowledge”, it may be time for a time-out and a reassessment.
“This survey of 300 in-house PE and VC lawyers finds that the pressure to control legal costs builds as spending continues to grow. In fact, 64% of PE and VC firms are spending more on legal services this year, with 66% expecting spending levels to rise again next year. However, many of the strategies in-house counsel currently use….such as requesting discounts on surprise invoices – are too reactive and occur retrospectively…..”