Legal departments in 2023 are under tremendous pressure to cut costs and often are issued edicts demanding radical reductions in their spend. Most of their efforts focus on slashing either resources (e.g., headcount) or costs (e.g., bringing more work in-house, asking for rate freezes from outside counsel, etc.), but economic conditions aside, the real culprit in their spend management woes lies in perception. Far too many legal departments still see themselves as cost centers, and their organization treats them accordingly – meaning, the only way to deal with cost centers is to continuously find ways to reduce their costs. What the current economic situation is highlighting for legal departments is the need to rethink their mission and reposition themselves within their companies as not a cost center, but as a value-enabling center that becomes a strategic partner for internal clients. There is great variability among legal departments in terms of where they are on this journey, and the same is true with professional services providers catering to legal department needs.  

In Law.com Compass Pacesetter Research: Legal Departments Spend Management 2023-2024, the Pacesetter Advisory Council assessed dozens of providers to arrive at twenty-three Innovators recognized for their unique approaches to legal department spend management challenges. And of those twenty-three, the Pacesetter Research team identified seven leaders of the innovation pack as Pacesetters. The research and analysis also provide insights into the competitive dynamics and service delivery trends driving convergence across legal, management consulting, multi-service, and specialist boutique mobility specialist providers.