America’s biggest companies used to be boring, predictable purchasers of legal services. When confronted with a big lawsuit, the general counsel would hire a pricey big-city law firm, even though a midsize firm or boutique could probably do the same work for far less money. That way, if the case went off the rails, nobody could second-guess the GC’s choice of outside counsel.
It’s become a cliché to say that those days are over. GCs will tell you that they’re watching their budgets more carefully than ever before and making firms compete for business. Every law firm markets itself as more innovative than the one across the street.
