Legal departments use various tools to manage spend and reduce costs, including shifting work from one law firm to another, moving from larger to smaller law firms, pulling more work in-house and employing more alternative legal service providers. However, many legal departments aren't employing one tool that can reduce costs immediately and support other tools to produce long-term cost containment: legal bill review.

Not using legal bill review as a primary tool for cost containment is like trying to build a house without a hammer; you may be able to do it, but it's going to be a lot more difficult.

Most corporate legal departments recognize bill review will reduce outside counsel legal spend, as those partners don't always comply with the department legal billing guidelines. High outside counsel spend can have a domino effect across the legal department, resulting in smaller budgets for other needs including technology and headcount.