Angela Padilla, left, and Catherine Lacavera, right.

What do clients want from their outside law firms next year? In a nutshell: They want you to work hard and smart. And more fairly too.

Angela Padilla, vice president and deputy general counsel of litigation and employment at Uber Technologies Inc., and Catherine Lacavera, director of IP and litigation at Google, each shared the top items on their outside counsel wish lists for 2018.

Angela Padilla, Uber

•  Better billing. “Outside law firms [need to] present clients with fair and reasonable bills that reflect an investment in their clients and eliminate ever-increasing billable hour rates. It's absurd to be paying over $1,000 an hour for lawyers. It cannot be rates times hours any more. We are just maxing out the amount we can pay even the most seasoned partners. All of the old things—flat fees, caps and collars—are not suitable for high-risk litigation. We have to come up with a way to bill for super-premium high risk.”

•  Diversity and inclusion. “It's an old saw, so we need to do something really revolutionary on this front. It's still not happening at the rate we want it to happen. That I still have all-white teams coming to pitch for me is stunning … Outside firms showing they have diverse teams is key.”

•  Better conflict management. “Law firms need to be more sensitive to conflicts. It's harder and harder because law firms are getting larger and larger and business conflicts are getting ever harder to manage. I'm not sure what is the answer, but loyalty to the client is eroding.”

•  Share your lawyers. “We've had a lot [of] associates seconded and they are great. It's a great way to really invest in the business.”

•  More sensitivity on costs. “Outside firms generally don't follow the outside billing guidelines. They need to think about our return on investment and frankly justify their value.”

Catherine Lacavera, Google

•  Embrace technology. “The legal industry is ripe for disruption. Technologies like machine learning can ease the burden of manual tasks like document review. Lawyers should lead adoption of and benefit from technological advances to the profession.”

•  Foster diversity. “Some law firms have made great progress on diversity, but many firms still have a long way to go, particularly at more senior levels. We have a very diverse in-house team and we are promoting diversity in our hiring practices. We have developed mentorship programs for diverse law firm associates to foster a diverse pipeline for more senior roles.”

•  Streamline discovery. “As electronic data proliferates, so too does the ever-growing burden of discovery. Other countries' legal systems function with lower costs and greater speed because they have minimal or no discovery, and instead focus on requiring, and enforcing voluntary disclosures. Fee shifting is also more prevalent elsewhere and could be used to help curb unreasonable discovery requests.”

•  Harmonize attorney licensing. “Examinations and requirements could be more standardized to reduce barriers to relocation.”

•  Protect confidentiality. ”Litigation should not threaten trade secrets and confidential information. Protective order breaches should have serious consequences. Concerns over loss of trade secret and confidentiality should not prevent litigants from pursuing litigation on the merits or force unwarranted settlements.”