Posted on March 10, 2009 5:10 PM |Permalink |TrackBacks (0)

An increasing amount of companies are acting to right-source tasks formerly passed on to their law firms, and to negotiate alternative fee arrangements not based on traditional billable hours for certain kinds of tasks. This is in response to what is noted as growing frustration over the rising costs of the law firm billable hour.

An article previously published by Slate, The Scourge of the Billable Hour, discusses this trend.

One way you can help your firm's clients cut their legal costs is to focus the time you're spending on your firm's core strengths.  If your firm is like most, expert location isn't even in your top ten best skills.  Replace the valuable time (at your hourly rate) you spend trying to find experts for your client with a dedicated expert witness search firm, like my company, Round Table Group, and you'll probably get better results in both expert search and what you were already good at (because you get to spend more time doing it).

A search firm not only introduces best practices, specialized resources, and due diligence into the increasingly important expert search process, identifying more and stronger expert candidates, but lowers your client's likely cost.  The expert search firm turns the expert location process -- an unknowable but potentially significant expenditure -- into a pay-for-performance model where your client may not have to pay anything unless you hire a great expert.  Given the choice between multiple qualified, interested, and available experts, you may get a more appropriate expert and a better hourly rate than you would have been able to negotiate on your own, as well as showing your client the typical consulting rates in that particular field.

Helping your client rationalize costs and save money on this part of their legal budget may enable your firms to continue to develop a deeper relationship in the core areas where you and your colleagues can add the most value.

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billable hours
expert witness search

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