Corporate legal departments are increasingly like other parts of the business, and are expected to manage costs. This year will find many legal departments trying to control litigation spending on outside counsel, according to roundtables conducted by HBR Consulting in cities across the country in November 2014.

Roundtable attendees included law department personnel from over 50 companies, the majority of which were Fortune 500 companies. The roundtables focused on reviewing the results of HBR's 2014 Law Department Survey.

According to the survey, outside counsel fees are up to 70 percent of discovery costs, so e-discovery is another focus to reduce the number of documents going to law firms.