General counsel are determined to resist sweeping fee hikes following the surge in top law firms' profits in the last financial year.

Clients have been quick to react to the record profit figures, with some complaining that charge-out rates are too high and others warning that the figures make them wary of instructing external counsel.

Some clients said hourly billing could come under renewed pressure, while others pledged to continue with panel arrangements in a bid to contain legal service inflation.

Mark Maurice-Jones, Kimberley-Clark's general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said top firms have not made enough effort to meet clients' expectations on fees.

"Charge-out rates at premier firms are astronomical and get bigger all the time," he said. "I do not get the feeling that top firms are too concerned by cost."

O2 general counsel Justine Campbell said the rising profits of top firms are likely to make general counsel question their advisers. She said: "These figures make general counsel more nervous about instructing external firms and increasingly wary of hourly billing."

BT international chief counsel Gordon Moir said companies with good panels and well-defined fee structures were well-placed to avoid the rises.

Although both said they have not experienced significant fee increases, Bridgepoint Capital general counsel Barry Lawson agreed that clients are likely to be paying for some of the increased profits and National Grid general counsel Helen Mahy said more firms were asking her to exercise discretionary bonuses. "That would not have happened two or three years ago," she said.

The comments follow a strong year for the top 50 UK firms, while recent Legal Week research found that a number of clients had encountered hourly charge-out rates of more than £700, with top companies facing top-end rates for partners of £600-£800 an hour.

In-house lawyers also pointed to rising salaries in private practice as causing them problems in hiring.

Campbell said that in the past month it has become significantly more difficult to recruit the right calibre of lawyer to her in-house team.

"The pot of gold offered by top firms is very attractive," she said. "More than half-a-million in profits per equity partner is a big carrot to dangle – in-house salaries are getting left behind."

Can general counsel put the brakes on the top 50′s double-digit profits growth? Join the debate with the Legal Week Top 50 Talkback special.