Lawyers are known for their negotiating skills, but that may not trickle down to IT purchases. A new survey found that the legal sector's pay margin for IT is the highest compared to other industries.

For its "Technology Product Margins Report" survey, U.K.-based technology service provider Probrand combed the technology purchases of U.K. businesses in 20 industries, including the legal, consultancy, business services, nuclear and gaming sectors. 

Probrand found the legal industry paid an average margin of 24% for its IT products, compared to the 14% paid by all industries. 

Law firm technology consultants told Legaltech News that although the survey was based on spending in the U.K. legal industry, the U.S. would mirror the report's findings. Fueling the overspending in the U.S. and U.K. legal sectors, they said, is the legal industry's aversion to risk and a lack of tech expertise in-house. 

What triggers many law firms and legal departments to buy IT at a severely inflated price is the industry's need to quickly comply with professional and government regulations and meet clients' demands, leaving less time to thoroughly research and negotiate IT services.

"They spend with risk aversion being paramount," said Matt Coatney, chief technology officer of HBR Consulting, "rather than trying to do things more cost efficiently but [instead they] work to reduce risk, which makes sense from a lawyer's perspective." 

In turn, law firms and corporate legal departments do "not go back to the well as much as they should to negotiate lower prices," Coatney explained.

Even with regulatory and client demands, tech consultants said the legal industry's high IT costs are also partially based on a lack of tech- or vendor-minded professionals in law firms and corporate legal departments.

"Attorneys are good at asking questions, getting to the bottom of problems, but they generally don't apply those [attributes] to their vendors," said Jared Correia, founder and CEO of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting.

However, as legal ops positions move into law firms and legal departments, they could demand more cost efficiency in spend and technology. Correia said he's also seen small law firms hire chief information officers or other positions tasked exclusively with managing and improving the firm's technology. Such perspectives are needed to keep IT vendors and managed service providers (MSP) accountable for the services they provide and the rates they bill, he said.

"I think the biggest issue is law firms don't vet these providers properly, and then they don't hold them accountable once they come on," Correia said.

Accountability could entail holding monthly meetings with vendors, determining the percentage of employees working with a vendor and making sure vendors perform system maintenance and other specific tasks that go beyond the "generic support language" found in many invoices, Correia noted.

"I think it's mostly about making them answer and asking questions. Even if you don't know the answers, just probe a little," he said.

While having a CIO is the norm in the legal industry, larger transparency into the IT spending habits outside of the legal industry might be key for legal to truly understand if they are overpaying.

"I have worked with some CIOs that definitely know that [there's overspending for IT] and view it as an idiosyncrasy of the legal industry," Coatney said.