Overbill me once, shame on you. Overbill me twice, shame on me.

We're entering the 'shame on me stage,' or as I prefer to call it, the 'enough is enough' era. For years, in-house legal leaders have begrudgingly stomached increasing law firm billing rates, even as they have watched their own budgets ebb and flow according to marketplace volatility (with more ebbing than flowing).

Sure, they've complained: As far back as 2008, the former GC of Cisco called law firm billing models "the last vestige of the medieval guild system."